USING "GOING TO"

Going to

I am going to buy a new car.

Going to is not a tense. It is a special structure that we use to talk about

the future.

The structure of going to is:

subject + be + going + to-infinitive

FOR PLANS AND INTENTIONS

EXAMPLES:
Is Freddy going to buy a new
car soon?
Are John and Pam going to
visit Milan when they are in Italy?
I think Nigel and Mary are going
to have a party next week.
 We are going to have dinner
together tomorrow.
Aren't you going to stay at the
library until your report is
finished?
We are going to eat turkey in
Christmas.
My brother is going to work in
the restaurant.
They aren`t going to play the
violin in the festival.
My father is going to cook
ceviche and later we eat paneton,
too.

USING "GOING" FOR PREDICTIONS

EXAMPLES:

He's going to be a brilliant

politician.
I'm going to have a hard time
falling asleep.
 You're going to be a good
engineer, you always study hard.
Is it going to rain this afternoon?
Yes, the sky is black.
Aren't they going to come to the
party?
If their parents accept.

How do we use going to?

going to for intention

We use going to when we have the
intention to do something before we
speak. We have already made a decision
before speaking.
Examples:
Jo has won the lottery. He says he's
going to buy a Porsche.
We're not going to paint our
bedroom tomorrow.
When are you going to go on
holiday?
In these examples, we had an intention
or plan before speaking. The decision
was made before speaking.

going to for prediction:

We often use going to to make a prediction about the future. Our
prediction is based on present evidence. We are saying what we think
will happen.

Here are some examples:

The sky is very black. It's going to

rain/snow.
It's 8.30! You're going to miss your
train!
I crashed the company car. My
boss isn't going to be very happy!
Is it going to rain this afternoon?

In these examples, the present situation (black sky, the time,

damaged car) gives us a good idea of what is going to happen.

Note that we can also use going to with be in other tenses, for example:

I was going to tell him but I forgot.

I had been going to fix the car for ages.