GOING TO – English future tense

Look at the following sentence: Tonight, I am going to read a book.

This is a future tense. It describes our intention to read a book at some time in the future (tonight).

Affirmative form of GOING TO

Present continuous form of the verb “to go” + infinitive form of the verb

I am going to read.
you are going to read.
he / she / it is going to read.
we are going to read.
you are going to read.
they are going to read.

Negative form of GOING TO

For the negative form, we put the present continuous form of the verb “go” into the negative form by adding the word “not” after the auxiliary verb “be” and “going”:

I am not going to read
you are not going to read
he / she / it is not going to read
we are not going to read
you are not going to read
they are not going to read

Question form of GOING TO

For the question form, we reverse the order of the subject and the auxiliary verb “be” from the present continuous form of going:

am I going to read?
are you going to read?
is he / she / it going to read?
are we going to read?
are you going to read?
are they going to read?

Uses and meaning of GOING TO

There are 2 main uses of “going to” in English:

An action in the future that has been planned or prepared

So for example, something is planned for the future. When we use “going to”, we are therefore expressing our firm intention to do something in the future. It expresses something that is fairly certain to happen in the future.

Examples:

I am going to buy a car next week.
(There is an intention to buy a car next week. I plan to buy a car next week. “going to” announces my intention to buy the car. )

Tomorrow, we are going to visit London.

After lunch, he is going to call Mr Brown.

A conclusion regarding the immediate future.

We also use “going to” to describe a certain future consequence or conclusion of something.

Examples:

There are lots of clouds in the sky. It is going to rain.
(Since we see lots of clouds, rain in the future is very likely. “It is going to rain” suggests that there will definitely be rain. Rain will be the conclusion or consequence of the clouds.)

David missed the bus. He is going to be late.

What does “gonna” mean?

When native English speakers are speaking quickly, they often say “gonna” instead of properly saying “going to”.

Example:

“I’m thirsty. I’m gonna have a drink.”
This actually means: “I’m thirsty. I’m going to have a drink.”

So, essentially “gonna” means “going to”. This is very common in informal spoken English, for example, in an everyday conversation with friends or family.

But be very careful. – “gonna” is NOT good English. It is not a real word. For example, if you are in a job interview, do not say it and you should never write it unless it is direct speech describing the exact words that someone has said (in quotation marks).

However “gonna” is very common. You will hear it a lot so it is important to know what it means.

GOING TO – English video lesson

Here is a video lesson on our Youtube channel. I advise you to watch this to hear the correct pronunciation and accent. There are some exercises at the end of the video. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. 🙂