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Caroline and Pearson Brown give you their

English Grammar Secrets

Going to

There is no one 'future tense' in English. There are 4 future forms. The one which is used most often in spoken English is 'going to', not 'will'.

We use 'going to' when we want to talk about a plan for the future.

  • I'm going to see him later today.
  • They're going to launch it next month.
  • We're going to have lunch first.
  • She's going to see what she can do.
  • I'm not going to talk for very long.

Notice that this plan does not have to be for the near future.

  • When I retire I'm going to go back to Barbados to live.
  • In ten years time, I'm going to be boss of my own successful company.

We use 'going to' when we want to make a prediction based on evidence we can see now.

  • Look out! That cup is going to fall off.
  • Look at those black clouds. It's going to rain soon.
  • These figures are really bad. We're going to make a loss.
  • You look very tired. You're going to need to stop soon.

We can replace 'going to go' by 'going'.

  • I'm going out later.
  • She's going to the exhibition tomorrow.

exercise 1

exercise 2

exercise 3

exercise 4

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