Hi, in today’s lesson we are going to learn the difference between going to and will.
Keep watching until the end as there will be a short quiz to see how much you have learned.
Firstly, going to and will are both used to talk about the future,
but how do you know which one to use?
Let’s look at 2 situations.
Brian is talking to Rob.
“Let’s organise a school reunion.”
Rob replies, “That’s a great idea. We’ll invite all our old friends.”
We’ll is an abbreviation of we will.
Here we use will because Rob has decided to invite their old friends at the time of speaking.
He had not decided this before.
The school reunion is a new idea.
So, we use will when we decide something at the time of speaking.
Let’s look at that on a timeline.
So, here is the past, the present and the future.
You can see when the decision is made in the present, that is now,
we use will and very often that is abbreviated to ‘ll.
So, I'll or we’ll or whatever.
So, here, in this case, it's we'll.
Whereas,
later that day, Rob meets Mary.
Rob tells Mary that he and Brian have decided to organise a school reunion.
We're going to invite all our old friends.
Here we use going to because we have already decided to have the school reunion.
Rob had already decided to invite all their old friends before he spoke to Mary.
So, we use going to because the decision was made before speaking.
So, on a timeline it would look like this:
So, again we have the past, the present and the future.
And here you can see the decision is made before the present moment,
it has already been made.
It has already been decided before now.
So, we use going to.
Let’s look at some more examples.
Ray called this morning while you were out.
OK, I’ll call him back.
Ask yourself, when did he decide to call him back?
He decided when he heard that he had been called.
He decided straight away to call him back, in the present.
So, we use will.
Remember we use will when we decide something at the time of speaking.
Whereas. Ray called this morning while you were out.
Yes, I know. I am going to call him back.
Here, the speaker already knew about the call
and has already decided to call him back.
He decided before this conversation to call him back,
Therefore we use going to.
So, remember, we use going to because the decision was made before speaking.
Or Chloe is in hospital.
Oh really? I didn’t know. I’ll go and visit her.
The speaker has just found out that Chloe is in hospital
and decides immediately to go and visit her.
So, remember we use will when we decide something at the time of speaking.
Whereas in this conversation,
Chloe is in hospital.
Yes, I know. I am going to visit her tomorrow
Here, the speaker already knows that Chloe is in hospital
and has already planned to visit her.
So, we use going to because the decision was made before speaking.
OK, moving on. Let’s look at going to and will when predicting the future.
Sometimes there is not much difference between will and going to.
For example: I think the exam results will be good.
Or,
I think the exam results are going to be good.
Here going to and will have a similar meaning.
However, we say something is going to happen when the situation now makes it clear.
We have some kind of evidence that something is going to happen.
The man can’t see the wall in front of him.
He is going to walk into the wall,
and not he will walk into the wall.
The situation now is that the man is walking towards to wall
and not looking where he is going.
So, we can see that he is going to walk into it.
So, we use going to.
Or,
The economic situation is bad now
and things are going to get worse.
Not things will get worse.
Why, because the situation now makes it clear.
We have figures as evidence, so here we use going to.
But if we don’t have evidence,
if we can’t see from the situation now we use will.
For example: Tom will probably come around midday.
We have no evidence of this. It is just a prediction about the future.
Or,
I think Alice will like the present we bought for her birthday.
Again, we have no evidence, it is just a prediction.
OK so now it’s your turn.
Fill in the gaps with either going to or will
One:
Wife: Why are you turning on the television?
Husband: I..... blank........ the news.
I am going to watch the news.
This is a decision he has already made
when she asks the question, so we use going to.
Two:
I’ve got a toothache.
Have you? Wait a second and I....................... you an aspirin.
Use the verb get.
I’ll get you an aspirin.
It is a spontaneous decision so we use will
and here it is abbreviated to ‘ll.
Three:
Man: This building doesn’t look very safe, does it?
Woman: No it looks as if.................... down.
Use the verb, fall
It looks as if it is going to fall down.
You can see the situation now.
You have evidence that it is unsafe.
So, we use going to.
Four:
Dad : Has Sam decided what he wants to do when he leaves school?
Friend: Yes, everything is planned.
He …...............a holiday and then ….......... a computer programming course.
Use the verbs have and do.
You know what to do, write your answer down below
and say why you decided on this answer
and I promise to give you feedback on what you write.
So that’s it for today.
I hope you feel you know when to use will and when to use going to in English.
I would really appreciate a like if you found this useful
and share it with other people who would find it useful too.
Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on any new lessons
and remember to hit the bell so you are notified when they come out.
So that's it. Take care and see you very soon.
Bye, bye!