To be going to
To be going to is a grammatical construction used in English to indicate different types of future events. It is usually used to express an intention to do something in the near future or to express a planned action. To be going to – used in the present and past tenses.
| To be going to | ||
| Signal words | Use | Form |
| when you have already decided to do sth. in the future what you think what will happen the planned action did not take place |
be (am/are/is) + going to + infinitive | |
The general scheme of using To be going to in the Present Continuous (the construction consists of two parts: to be + going to)
| Positive | Negative | Question |
| I am going to work | I am not going to work | Am I going to work? |
| He/She/It is going to work | He/She/It is not going to work | Is He/She/It going to work? |
| We/You/They are going to work | We/You/They are not going to work | Are We/You/They going to work? |
The general scheme of using To be going to in the past tense (the construction consists of two parts: Past simple (to be) + going to)
| Positive | Negative | Question |
| I/He/She/It was going to work | I/He/She/It was not going to work | Was I/He/She/It going to work? |
| We/You/They were going to work | We/You/They were not going to work | Were We/You/They going to work? |
Often used colloquially:
to be going to – to be gonna
When the Future Simple is used to describe assumptions about future actions, it is often used with verbs and expressions in the Present Simple: believe, think, expect, be afraid, be sure , as well as adverbs: probably, perhaps, certainly.
Example:
I’m going to Kyiv.
She was going to be here.
Dan is going to buy a new laptop.