The phrase “be going to” is often used in English to talk about future plans and intentions. It’s formed with the verb “be” in the appropriate tense and person, followed by “going to” and the base form of the main verb. Here’s a breakdown:
- Affirmative form: “It is going to take time.”
- Here, “is going to” is used with the subject “It”. The main verb is “take”. This sentence expresses a future prediction or plan.
- Question form: “Are you going to do anything about it?”
- In questions, the verb “be” and the subject are switched. So, “you are going to” becomes “Are you going to”. The main verb here is “do”. This question asks about someone else’s future plans or intentions.
- Affirmative form: “This is a group of people who want to tell you your work is going to live.”
- In this complex sentence, “is going to” is used with the subject “your work”. The main verb is “live”. This sentence expresses a future prediction.
- Informal affirmative form: “I need a video clip, and you’re gonna give it to me.”
- Here, “gonna” is an informal contraction of “going to”, often used in spoken English. The subject is “you”, and the main verb is “give”. This sentence expresses a future intention or expectation.
Here are examples of ‘BE going to’ with A1 infinitives that are linked to video:
It is going to take time.
Are you going to do anything about it?
This is a group of people who want to tell you your work is going to live.
I need a video clip, and you‘re gonna give it to me.
‘Snow’ is A2 in the English Vocabulary Profile:
The weather forecast said it‘s going to snow tonight.
In the English Grammar Profile, in the category of FUTURE:
B1 Point 31 is defined:
‘be going to’: increasing range of verbs to make predictions.
A2 point 4 is defined:
future the affirmative and question forms of ‘be going to’ talk about plans and intentions.
*Point 4 overlaps A2 interrogative clauses and A2 verb patterns.
* Note that there is no other entry for this structure with lexical verbs in the EGP. There are other points for a combination with adverbs though. So whether or not they are used for predictions doesn’t matter when it comes to the form pointing to B1 only.
An iWeb search for:
_VB going to VVI
*we have manually removed was|were
1 ARE GOING TO GET 23377
2 ‘RE GOING TO GET 22241
3 IS GOING TO HAPPEN 18812
4 IS GOING TO GET 18138
5 IS GOING TO TAKE 16988
6 IS GOING TO MAKE 16695
7 ‘S GOING TO HAPPEN 15884
8 ARE GOING TO USE 15328
9 ‘RE GOING TO NEED 14712
10 ‘M GOING TO TRY 13717
PELIC STUDENT:
I‘m going to try another steak.
Korean female level 3 writing class.
*intention
11 ‘S GOING TO TAKE 13462
12 ARE GOING TO NEED 13017
13 ARE GOING TO MAKE 12692
15 AM GOING TO TRY 11410
17 ‘RE GOING TO SEE 11181
18 ‘M GOING TO GO 10296
19 IS GOING TO GO 10078
20 IS GOING TO COME 10029
21 ARE GOING TO GO 9159
22 ARE GOING TO SEE 9145
23 ARE GOING TO TAKE 9145
24 ‘S GOING TO GET 8544
25 ‘RE GOING TO MAKE 8406
26 ‘M GOING TO GET 8252
27 IS GOING TO HELP 8245
29 ‘RE GOING TO GO 8086
30 ARE GOING TO WANT 8038
32 ‘RE GOING TO USE 7703
33 ‘RE GOING TO WANT 7695
36 IS GOING TO CHANGE 7505
37 ARE GOING TO LOVE 7241
38 ‘RE GOING TO TAKE 7133
39 IS GOING TO LOOK 6836
40 IS GOING TO GIVE 6778
41 ‘M GOING TO GIVE 6457
42 ‘M GOING TO MAKE 6386
44 ARE GOING TO LOOK 6089
45 ‘M GOING TO TAKE 5974
46 ‘S GOING TO MAKE 5869
48 IS GOING TO COST 5361
49 ARE GOING TO START 5283
50 ‘M GOING TO USE 5215
51 ARE GOING TO FIND 5177
52 ARE GOING TO COME 5098
53 ‘RE GOING TO FIND 4882
54 ARE GOING TO TRY 4829
56 AM GOING TO MAKE 4600
59 AM GOING TO USE 4540
60 ‘RE GOING TO LOOK 4485
61 IS GOING TO NEED 4451
63 ARE GOING TO GIVE 4360
64 ‘M GOING TO START 4277
65 ‘M GOING TO SHOW 4273
66 AM GOING TO GET 4218
67 ‘RE GOING TO TRY 4097
68 ‘S GOING TO GO 4089
69 IS GOING TO BECOME 4063
70 ‘RE GOING TO LOVE 3977
71 AM GOING TO GO 3972
73 ‘M GOING TO SAY 3827
74 ‘S GOING TO COME 3803
75 ‘RE GOING TO START 3783
76 IS GOING TO END 3782
78 AM GOING TO GIVE 3746
79 ‘RE GOING TO TALK 3557
80 ‘M GOING TO KEEP 3521
81 ARE GOING TO CONTINUE 3433
82 AM GOING TO SHOW 3391
84 IS GOING TO CONTINUE 3359
85 ARE GOING TO PUT 3276
86 AM GOING TO TAKE 3244
87 ARE GOING TO TALK 3233
88 ARE GOING TO CHANGE 3231
89 ARE GOING TO SAY 3226
90 IS GOING TO START 3225
92 IS GOING TO PLAY 3130
93 ARE GOING TO PLAY 3100
94 ‘M GOING TO PUT 3086
95 IS GOING TO WIN 3074
96 ARE GOING TO KEEP 3072
98 ‘M GOING TO TELL 3041
99 ‘RE GOING TO PUT 3037
100 ‘RE GOING TO GIVE 3033
A2:
become, cost, going to, happen, keep, try, win
B1:
continue
BE _P going to _VVI
1 ARE YOU GOING TO GET 2341
2 AM I GOING TO GET 1614
3 ARE WE GOING TO GET 1469
4 ARE YOU GOING TO USE 1318
5 ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE 1303
6 ARE WE GOING TO SEE 1006
7 IS IT GOING TO TAKE 825
8 ARE YOU GOING TO GO 822
9 ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE 764
10 ARE YOU GOING TO PUT 687
11 ARE YOU GOING TO TELL 685
12 ARE YOU GOING TO FIND 571
13 ARE YOU GOING TO TRY 560
14 ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP 544
15 ARE THEY GOING TO GET 527
16 ARE YOU GOING TO SAY 524
17 ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE 512
18 IS IT GOING TO COST 441
19 ARE YOU GOING TO LET 410
20 ARE YOU GOING TO PAY 376
21 ARE YOU GOING TO START 369
22 ARE WE GOING TO MAKE 342
23 ARE YOU GOING TO BUY 322
24 AM I GOING TO MAKE 315
25 ARE YOU GOING TO STOP 282
26 ARE WE GOING TO GO 281
27 ARE YOU GOING TO SEE 273
28 ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE 265
29 ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND 261
30 AM I GOING TO GO 252
31 ARE YOU GOING TO SELL 248
32 ARE YOU GOING TO PLAY 245
33 ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE 229
34 ARE YOU GOING TO ADD 222
35 ARE YOU GOING TO RUN 221
36 ARE YOU GOING TO STAY 214
37 AM I GOING TO SAY 211
38 ARE YOU GOING TO COME 207
39 ARE YOU GOING TO CONTINUE 205
40 ARE WE GOING TO FIND 202
41 IS HE GOING TO GET 202
42 ARE YOU GOING TO CHANGE 200
43 ‘S IT GOING TO TAKE 199
44 ARE YOU GOING TO NEED 199
45 AM I GOING TO FIND 197
46 ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE 196
47 ARE YOU GOING TO KNOW 195
48 ARE THEY GOING TO GO 193
49 ARE YOU GOING TO EAT 193
50 ARE YOU GOING TO CALL 193
51 ARE YOU GOING TO BUILD 191
52 AM I GOING TO TELL 190
53 AM I GOING TO PAY 190
54 IS IT GOING TO MAKE 187
55 ARE YOU GOING TO HELP 184
56 ARE YOU GOING TO WEAR 184
57 AM I GOING TO DIE 179
58 ARE WE GOING TO START 173
59 AM I GOING TO USE 167
60 AM I GOING TO NEED 166
61 ARE YOU GOING TO ASK 166
62 IS IT GOING TO HAPPEN 163
63 ARE WE GOING TO USE 159
64 IS IT GOING TO GET 158
65 ARE YOU GOING TO LOOK 155
66 ARE YOU GOING TO LEAVE 154
67 ARE YOU GOING TO HANDLE 147
68 ARE YOU GOING TO LEARN 141
69 ARE WE GOING TO LET 140
70 ARE THEY GOING TO SAY 136
71 ARE WE GOING TO PAY 136
72 ARE WE GOING TO STOP 136
73 WAS I GOING TO GET 136
74 ARE YOU GOING TO CHOOSE 134
75 AM I GOING TO WEAR 134
76 ARE THEY GOING TO FIND 132
77 ARE YOU GOING TO WATCH 129
78 AM I GOING TO PUT 127
79 ARE YOU GOING TO LIVE 127
80 ARE WE GOING TO PUT 126
81 ARE YOU GOING TO BRING 116
82 ARE YOU GOING TO FIX 111
83 ARE YOU GOING TO FEEL 110
84 ARE WE GOING TO SAY 109
85 ARE YOU GOING TO MISS 109
86 ARE YOU GOING TO KILL 104
87 ARE YOU GOING TO PICK 103
88 ARE YOU GOING TO DEAL 102
89 ARE THEY GOING TO USE 102
90 ARE WE GOING TO TALK 101
91 ARE WE GOING TO TAKE 98
92 ARE YOU GOING TO TALK 97
93 IS IT GOING TO GO 97
94 ARE THEY GOING TO PUT 96
95 ARE YOU GOING TO SHOW 96
96 ARE YOU GOING TO CELEBRATE 94
97 ARE WE GOING TO EAT 93
98 ARE YOU GOING TO MANAGE 93
99 ARE YOU GOING TO TURN 91
100 ARE WE GOING TO KEEP 90
Final note. A visitor using search typed:
E.g.going to
Which returned no results. E.g. means they were looking for examples. But it is not clear if they are looking for examples of ‘going to’ or examples of similar structures to ‘going to’. Anyway, it is better to just type ‘going to’ into the search box, because that will give you many pages that all have many examples. There are not many pages that use the term ‘E.g.’
In the bottom left corner, there are 5 other related grammar points.