Will & going to

 

Grammar Explanation:

Today we’re looking at and contrasting two ways to talk about future plans, using ‘going to’ and ‘will’.

In an earlier programme we saw that ‘going to’ can be used to talk about your intentions or decisions for the future.

Example sentences

I’m going to study medicine at university.

I’m going to visit my mother at the weekend.

I’m going to get a new car on Saturday.

 

‘Will’, on the other hand, can used to talk about future decisions made at the moment of speaking for things that aren’t planned. Listen:

Diarmuid: I’ll go up to bed now.

 

In this example, the speaker hasn’t planned to go to bed early but because he suddenly feels tired

he decides to go to bed. Mary, on the other hand, has planned to finish reading part of her book

so says:

Mary: I’m just going to finish reading this chapter.

 

‘Will’ is a modal form and doesn’t change whatever the subject and it’s followed by the

infinitive without ‘to’. In spoken English we tend to contract will (I will, I’ll, you will, you’ll and so on). Listen:

Diarmuid: I’ll go up to bed now.

Mary: … then I’ll come right up.

 

So, to recap then: We can use ‘going to’ to talk about intentions or decisions for the future and

we can use ‘will’ to talk about decisions made at the moment of speaking.

 

Find out more

Subject

will

base infinitive

I

go to bed now.

she / he

have an early night.

you

will

go to the shops, if you like.

we

'll

answer the door.

they

bring a cake.

look after it for you.

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