Going to

When you use it

Be going to has two jobs. First, it states a plan or an intention that you decided on before the moment of speaking. Second, it makes a prediction when there is evidence in front of you: dark clouds, a glass at the edge of the table, a runner far ahead of the others. In both cases the future is already visible in the present, either in your head or in the world. That is why the form uses going: you are on the way to the event.

How it is formed

Be going to is the present form of be + going to + the base verb. Only be changes with the subject.

Short forms are the usual ones for be: I'm going to, he's going to, they aren't going to. Short answers use be alone: Are you going to call him? Yes, I am. In fast speech going to often sounds like gonna; understand it, but do not write it.

With the verb go itself, speakers usually avoid going to go and say I'm going to the cinema tonight, which is the present continuous. Both are correct; the shorter one is more natural.

Typical time expressions: tonight, tomorrow, next week, this summer, in two years, soon.

Examples

• I am going to buy a new bike next month.
• Tom is going to start a course in September.
• Anna is not going to visit her parents this weekend; she has too much work.
• Are you going to cook tonight, or shall we order something?
• Look at those clouds. It is going to rain.
• Careful, that glass is going to fall.
• We are going to paint the kitchen white.
• What are you going to do after school?

The first four and the last two are plans; the fifth and sixth are predictions from something the speaker can see.

Common mistakes

• ✗ I going to call him tomorrow.
  ✓ I am going to call him tomorrow.
  Ukrainian and Russian have no auxiliary in «я подзвоню / я позвоню». In English be cannot be dropped; it carries the person and the tense, and going to alone is not a verb form.
• ✗ I will buy a car; I already chose the model.
  ✓ I am going to buy a car; I have already chosen the model.
  When the decision was made earlier, going to is the natural choice. Will suggests a decision made at the moment of speaking or a plain prediction. Slavic languages use one future form («куплю») for both, so the difference needs conscious attention.
• ✗ She is going to studying medicine. / ✗ She is going to studies medicine.
  ✓ She is going to study medicine.
  After going to comes the base verb, never -ing and never a form with -s. The tense and the person are already carried by be.
• ✗ Is going to rain? / ✗ It going to rain?
  ✓ Is it going to rain?
  Questions put be first and keep the subject. Russian can drop the pronoun («Будет дождь?»), but English needs it even when nothing real does the raining.
• ✗ Tomorrow I go to the dentist. (a personal plan)
  ✓ Tomorrow I am going to the dentist. / I am going to see the dentist tomorrow.
  The Slavic present tense can express a plan («завтра иду к врачу»). The English present simple cannot, except for timetables; a plan needs going to or the present continuous.

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