We are going to the beach

1Jamie : Finally all works are over. Time to get ourselves some vacation.
2Edith : Yes, especially after that long paper work. We surely need to loosen up our muscle.
What do you plan?
3Jamie : Mary and I have been waiting this for a year. We are going to the beach!
We’ve got our new swimming costume and two pairs of fin for scubadiving.
What about you, Edith?
4Edith : First of all, that sounds wonderful. Second, I am staying around the city. I’ve got this
new hobby of decopauge. I am going to give my house a new look from the inside.
5Jamie : Hmm…that is some idea. Are you doing it yourself?
6Edith : Yes, I have been practicing lately. I just did not have more time to decorate all the
rooms.
I plan to start tomorrow.
7Jamie : And maybe Mary and I willl make a visit afterwards.
8Edith : Sure. I’ll make you some cookies and tea.

As you can see in the conversation, there 3 different ways to say a future action.
The common one is using will. However, using will at all time makes your sentence less natural.
You can use be going to or be + Ving to tell that your future action is certain or already
planned.
When Jamie says “We are going to the beach!”, it means he and Marry have planned to go to th
beach and they are certainly going to do it on their holiday.

Take a look again at the above conversation. Write the sentence in bold into the right row.

Saying future action

will + Vi

be + Ving
 be going to + Vi

Complete the sentence using will, be or be going to

Jack : I am in my 5th semester my university life. I don’t know if it is just me or everyone
else feels the same way, the schedule is just tight. Tomorrow I __________ have the
psycholinguistic class at 9 and afterwards I __________ having a lecture on
literature. I __________ be having only 30 minutes for lunch before going for
another class. Tonight I __________ work on an assignment that is due next 2 days.
I am pretty tired now so I guess I __________ only finish it in an hour. Usually I
have one hour reading a novel but I __________ just directly go to bed this time.

Let’s take a brief break while enjoying this comic strip

There are other ways to say what we do in the near future.
One of them is using “ be + about to” as you can see in the comic strip.

When you say “I am about to get some coffee.”, it mean you are going to get a cup of coffee real
soon.

Make your own sentence

Sophie is doing her magic performance. You know all the tricks because you accompanied her
during her practice. One of them is she takes a bird out of her hat.
When you see she is taking her hat off, what can you whisper to a friend next to you?
_____________________________________________________________________________
___

Translate the following lines into English. Use will, be going to, be Ving and about to.
Besok kita akan belajar masak bersama. Jika memungkinkan, siswa dari kelas sore akan
bergabung dengan kita. Di kelas besok saya akan tunjukkan pada kalian cara membuat adonan
untuk tortilla. Pastikan kalian tetap mengenakan sarung tangan saat akan mengaduk adonan.
Setelah itu kalian akan memanggang tortilla kalian sendiri.

memungkinkan = possible, adonan = dough, sarung tangan = gloves, mengaduk = mix, memanggang =
grill