'Will' vs 'going to'

Hi and welcome to another lesson from New English Academy. Today we’re going to look at the differences between will and going to. This lesson is aimed at beginner students but if you are more advanced you might still find something useful too. First, I’m going to talk about what going to and will really mean. Then we’re going to hear them in context in a short story. As always, don’t forget to check out our website, New English Academy.com for all the fun online activities that go with this lesson.

You probably know that going to and will both talk about the future, therefore they are similar. But what are the differences? Why do we choose to use one and not the other? Some people might say OK, well, one is more relaxed than the other, or one is more formal than the other, but beware! That isn’t really the truth, and if you believe that then you are stopping yourself from being as accurate as you could be. Let me tell you more.

They both talk about the future, but the similarity kind of stops there. What kind of future do they talk about? Woah! Is the type of future important? It sure is! And, what kind of present does the future come from? No! Does that mean going to and will actually have important subtle differences and tell us about the present too? Yep – you bet! Lots of important, different information – and we make unconscious choices about which one to use.

So what are the different meanings for going to and will? To be going to do something

· talks about the future – OK, that’s easy;

· makes predictions based on current evidence – that means talks about the future because we can see something true now, right this moment;

· talks about plans for the future – BUT….these plans were made before now, this is a basic difference between the two – keep that in mind!

On the other hand, will talks about the future in different ways to going to. For example, will

· talks about the future – OK, we understand that;

· makes predictions about the future BUT WITHOUT any current evidence – that’s an important difference;

· makes promises – often to reassure people;

· makes sudden decisions – based on the situation right now we can decide about the future;

· offers help or asks for help -  because it talks about the future without a plan.

So you can see that will is also linked to the present but in a sudden, unplanned way instead of going to which tells us more about the past and the present.

OK, so how do we make them? Will is easy – just put it before the verb, for example:

· Is that the phone? I’ll get it.

Did you notice the contraction? Will drops the w & i and leaves just the ll after the subject. The negative is easy too – won’t, which is the contraction of will not. For example:

· I’ll do anything for love, but I won’t do that.

For questions, either turn the subject and will around, e.g.

· Will you still love me tomorrow?

Or put a wh question in front of it, e.g.

· When will I see you again?

To make going to don’t forget to put the right form of to be in front of the verb, for example:

· I’m going to take two weeks.  I’m going to have a fine vacation.

Did you notice the pronunciation here? To be going to often gets contracted down to to be + gonna, which is fine when you’re talking with people, but please be careful when you are writing it.  Use it in emails and messages to friends and family. I don’t recommend it in more formal writing like in business mails or college work.

How do you make the negative for going to? Just put not between to be and going to, e.g.

· We’re not going to take it anymore.

To make yes/no questions, just turn the subject and to be around, e.g.

· Are you going to call me later?

OK, to summarize, there are big differences between to be going to and will.

Going to talks about futures based on plans and current evidence now. Will talks about unplanned futures or futures with no evidence now; makes offers and promises; gives assurance and makes decisions right now about the future.

Pretty interesting, huh! OK, now listen to the text which has a few examples of will and going to in context. The first time, try to listen for just the main idea. Don’t worry about all the details; just focus on the most important idea.  And don’t forget, you can get all the online activities for this lesson on the website, New English Academy.com. Here we go!

Planning a surprise party

Today is Wednesday and two friends are planning a surprise birthday party for this weekend. Tomas and Keiko started putting together a party for their best-friend Angela two weeks ago. They have already talked about what they are going to do but still need to decide a few things.  For example, they still need to go shopping so they are going to get the food on Friday night from Safeway and prepare some of it early. Tomas is going to buy the vegetables and dips while Keiko is going to pick up wine and beer. They haven’t decided about decorating the room yet.

Tomas says he’ll spend Saturday morning putting things away and tidying up if Keiko will make some decorations. Keiko doesn’t have any paper or glue but she says she’ll get some from the store on the way back from work on Friday. She won’t forget, she promises. Tomas tells her not to go to the shop on Blake and 5^th. He had a bad time there once with a rude clerk and he won’t ever go there again. Keiko reassures him and says OK, she won’t go either.

Tomas knows Keiko will be busy Saturday morning so he says he’ll check in with friends to make sure they’ll come, when he gets some time. It is going to be a barbecue so they are both worried about the weather. Right now, the forecast on TV is good but they’ll bring the party inside if the weather looks like rain.

They’re fairly certain that Angela will be happy with the surprise party. She has a lot of friends and they’ll probably all turn up, which will make for a noisy, fun party with music, good food, dancing and great conversation. It’s always fun when people get together. Tomas and Keiko have made a lot of plans for the party and they are going to have a great time.