ENGLISH GRAMMAR 2º ESO (May, 13th)
WILL / BE GOING TO (FUTURE)
Now, we are going to
learn when do we use ‘WILL’ and when do we use ‘BE GOING TO’.
A.-We make FUTURE
PREDICTIONS to express what we think will happen in the future.
-We use
‘will+infinitive’ if we simple express our opinion, make a promise or an offer.
For
example: imagine that you look at the sky and it is all blue without a cloud on
it. However, you say ‘I think it will rain’, you use ‘will’ because you are
stating your opinion.
-We use ‘be going to
+ infinitive’ if we make a prediction based on
present evidence, that is, you see something that makes you predict
something is going to happen in the future.
For
example: imagine that you look at the sky and it’s all covered with black
clouds and you say ‘ It is going to rain’, you use ‘be going to’ because after
seeing the black clouds, you can make a more or less ‘sure’ prediction.
B.-We can talk about FUTURE
ACTIONS.
-We use ‘will+
infinitive’ to talk about a spontaneous action, that is, an action we have not
planned to do, something that we decide to make as we are speaking.
For
example: imagine you are watching T.v and your little sister asks you to help
her with her homework. Obviously, you haven’t planned to help your sister, so
you would answer ‘OK , I will help you’ or ‘No, I won’t’ , using ‘will’ because
you make the decision in that same moment.
-We use ‘be going to
+ infinitive’ to talk about planned future actions.
For
example : Imagine your birthday is next Saturday and you have invited all your
friends to a fast food restaurant to celebrate it. You would say ‘We are going
to celebrate my birthday in McDonal’s next Saturday’, using ‘be going to’
because it’s a planned action (choosing and booking the restaurant, the date,
the people coming, the time …)
You must
remember we can also use the ‘Present Continuous’ to talk about planned future
actions ‘I’m playing tennis this afternoon’ , when we are talking about near
future.
ACTIVITIES
1.-Copy the following chart in your notebook.
2.-Click on the link to practice the difference
between ‘will’ and ‘be going to’.
