Delahunty and Garvey
which is typically spelled “gonna.”
Meanings
Be going to communicates a more certain future than will, either because the
speaker strongly intends to bring that future about or it has already been
planned: I am going to finish this if it kills me. It’s all arranged; I am going to
fly to Los Angeles next week.
The future may also be quite certain because it results from causes op-
erating in the present: The temperature is dropping; it’s going to snow. He’s 12
points ahead; he’s going to win the game.
When used to express the future result of a current cause, be going to
communicates an inference that the result will occur almost immediately.
This suggestion of immediacy appears to be due to pragmatic factors. If the
result is not going to be immediate, then the speaker may override the infer-
ence with a temporal adverbial such as next month, next year, in 2009. For
example, Current weather trends indicate that we are going to have very cold
weather next week/month/year.
In spite of their differences, will and be going to are often interchangeable
without much apparent effect, for example: They will be in the hospital for ten
days/They are going to be in the hospital for ten days. I think it’ll rain/I think it’s
going to rain.
In other cases, substituting be going to for will causes significant changes
of meaning. For example, expressing an intention with will allows it to be
interpreted as an offer: I’ll bring dessert, whereas expressing that intention
with be going to suggests a fixed plan: I’m going to bring dessert. It may also
suggest the speaker’s expectation that someone might try to thwart their
intention: compare, I’ll answer it with I’m going to answer it when the phone
rings. Similarly, substituting be going to for will in requests and promises
causes them to seem either preemptory and intrusive or questions about
statements of fact: Are you going to bring the beer this time? I am going to help
you on Saturday (whether you like it or not).
In some contexts, substituting will for be going to results in ungrammati-
cality. Compare If it’s going to rain, you should bring an umbrella with * If it
will rain, you should bring an umbrella.
In continuous text be going to and will may sometimes alternate in any order:
It’ll be cooler tomorrow, because it’s going to be cloudy in the afternoon. It’s going to be
cooler tomorrow, because it’ll be cloudy in the afternoon.
Present progressive
Just like the simple present tense, the present progressive with an appropri-