ENGLISH GRAMMAR for ESL learners
'GOING TO' to talk about the future
Present-Future structure of verbs for plans and predictions.
BE GOING TO :
The structure be going to is mainly used:- to talk about plans and intentions
- to make predictions based on present evidence
| subject | be | going | full infinitive | |
| I | am | going | to paint | the door. |
| You | are | going | to love | this book. |
| Jack | is | going | to buy | a new computer. |
| It | is | going | to rain | very soon. |
| We | are | going | to visit | a museum. |
| They | are | going | to accept | our invitation. |
PLANS and INTENTIONS :
Be going to is used to talk about plans and intentions, usually when the decision has already been made.
♦ Alex and Eva have announced that they're going to get married.
♦ Emma is going to share an apartment with Melanie.
♦ Pedro is going to revise his English all evening.
♦ I'm going to watch the match on television.
PREDICTIONS :
We use be going to when we can see that something is likely to happen.
♦ Diego is going to fail the exam if he continues to miss classes.
♦ Look at those clouds.
It's going to rain!
♦
The ladder is shaking.
That man is going to fall!
♦
Hurry up! We're going to miss the bus.
GONNA :
Although it is grammatically incorrect, going to is sometimes shortened to gonna, in very informal conversations, especially when we speak quickly. Gonna is also used in song lyrics.
Gonna is more often found in American English, but it is never written that way (except in song lyrics).
♦ I'm gonna
surprise you all one day! = I'm going to surprise you all one day.