Future: Going to
The Future tenses in English are formed using auxiliary verbs.
One of the most commonly used constructions to express future actions is:
am/is/are + going to + the verb (base form)
| Singular | Plural |
| I’m going to read
You’re going to read He/she/it’s going to read |
We’re going to read
You’re going to read They’re going to read |
We use going to:
1) to talk about future events that have been planned in advance:
- Michael is going to buy a new car next year.
- We are going to play tennis in the evening.
2) to make predictions (about the weather, actions of people, etc.) when there is evidence at the present moment:
- Look at those clouds. (evidence) It‘s going to rain soon. (prediction)
- That dog looks really angry. (evidence) It‘s going to attack us. (prediction)
We use the negative with ‘going to’ for things that probably will not or aren’t going to happen. To make negative statements with going to, we use:
am/is/are not + going to + the verb (base form)
| Singular | Plural |
| I am not (’m not) going to run
You’re not (aren’t) going to run He/she/it’s not going to run |
We aren’t going to run
You aren’t going to run They aren’t going to run |
- The concert has already started. We aren’t going to find free seats.
- I’m not going to get wet; I have a raincoat.
- Tom is sick today, so Jane’s not going to meet with him.
To make questions with ‘going to’, we change the order and use:
am/is/are + subject + going to + the verb (base form)
- Is Jennifer going to be at the party?
- Are we going to take this home with us?
| Singular | Plural |
| Am I going to see?
Are you going to see? Is he/she/it going to see? |
Are we going to see?
Are you going to see? Are they going to see? |
Note: In short positive answers to the questions above we use only full forms of am/is/are. However, in short negative answers we can also use the contracted forms.
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