Going-to future
|
|
Going-To Future is a term used to describe an English sentence structure referring to the future, making use of the verb phrase be going to. Swedish has a similar construction, though not in the form of a participle, as in Jag kommer att ... (literally, I come to ..., but always translated as, I am going to ...) Some Celtic languages use this exact construct (i.e. going + verb) to represent the future tense.
Formation
subject + be (in the proper form for the subject) + going to + verb + any other information
Usage
Going-To Future is used when the speaker wishes to express
- previously formed intention, "I am going to look into the matter thoroughly." (If will was used here, it would imply a presently formed spontaneous decision.)
- certainty about the future based on evidence or fact from the present or the speaker's opinion, "If you don't hasten, you are going to get caught by the police and haled back to gaol." "Woeful tidings I bring – the clouds I have seen just behind this mountain, but heading our way, indicate that our humble dwellings are going to be swept away by the impending storm."
See also: will future, shall, grammatical tense, grammatical aspect