Linguistic Overview
While some of the Future Forms covered on this page directly communicate verbs that will (or will not) happen in the future, most actually express predictions or expectations that are held in the present. Naturally, these predictions are for future verbs, but the prediction itself exists at the moment of speaking (unless otherwise specified).
For instance, one might say, “Regina is going to win the race,” which technically reflects the speaker current belief in the outcome, rather than the eventual outcome itself. The speaker may have good reason to make such a proclamation, but the outcome of the race is not entirely set in stone … perhaps another factor arises between now and the end of the race that changes things; maybe Regina injures her ankle, or an underdog opponent performs better than expected.
How the situation eventually turns out is virtually irrelevant to the sentence “Regina is going to win the race.” The true focus of the sentence is what the speaker’s expectations are at the moment.
By the way, future actions, events, and states may be regarded as unreal in most situations, at least until they come to pass in what will eventually be the present. The term unreal refers to the fact that such verbs are not set in stone.
The distinction between the various Future Forms often comes down to the source of the prediction and to the degree of conviction that the prediction will come true.
Future Forms
Be Going To
Meaning
The term be going to is one of the most common forms for Future Predictions. Taken literally, it can mean “moving or progressing in order to carry out …”. Most of the time, this phrase does not literally imply physical movement, but rather steps taken toward toward a potential outcome. For predictions, be going to is best used when the current trajectory of the situation is headed toward a particular potential outcome.
In most cases, there is some evidence of this trajectory so that the speaker, as well as others observing the situation, can come to a reasonable conclusion.
In the example sentence, “It‘s going to rain soon,” the speaker probably has a reason for this prediction that others can observe (because the reason doesn’t come internally from within the speaker, but externally from the situation). Perhaps the speaker is merely echoing a weather forecast they recently saw, or maybe they can see dark clouds approaching and feel a chill in the air.
In any case, the reason for the speaker’s prediction should be clear to other observant people. (Even if others arrive at a different conclusion, the evidence the speaker uses isn’t just in their own head.)
Form
The BE at the start of this phrase is an auxiliary verb and behaves like any other BE. Thus, be going to can take the following forms:
- “am going to” ← 1st-person singular
- “is going to” ← 3rd-person singular
- “are going to” ← 2nd-person singular or any plural
- “be going to” ← after modal verbs
- “been going to” ← after a Perfect HAVE
For negatives: not should come immediately after ‘am’, ‘is’, or ‘are’. For interrogatives: ‘am’, ‘is’, or ‘are’ should come before the subject. Each of these BE forms can also be contracted and affixed to their preceding subject.
The main verb (which follows to) should be in its base (or Bare Infinitive) form.
Will
Meaning
The other of the most common future indicators is will. Taken literally, it refers to one’s personal drive, determination, or conviction. While willpower doesn’t bring about the a predicted verb like it might for Future Plans, we use will to express subjective beliefs and expectations.
If an artist says, “This next piece will be my best one yet,” they probably have little reason to believe that may be true. Instead, it’s a statement of the speaker’s hope. This ‘prediction’ might be nothing more than wishful thinking. For another example, “Sheila will be so surprised!” probably has some validity as a prediction if the speaker knows Sheila well enough. Even so, it’s likely a biased prediction.
Will is more appropriate than be going to when there has not been any progress made toward the expected verb, or when the reason for the prediction is more subjective than objective.
Form
Will is a modal auxiliary. For Future Predictions, it would likely be considered a Modal of Expectation.
As a modal, it should be the first part of its verb string (i.e.: If there are any other auxiliary verbs featured in the verb string, they should come after will.). It follows the usual rules of leading auxiliaries, including:
- Negators (like not and never) and certain other types of adverbs generally come immediately after will and before any other auxiliaries or the main verb.
- For some question forms, will should come before the subject.
Also as a modal, will never changes its form to agree with a subject, and it never ends with -s or -ing. Will can be abbreviated as ‘ll and attached to the subject before it. The contracted form of will not is won’t.
Whichever verb follows will (whether the main verb or another auxiliary) should be in its base form (or its Bare Infinitive).
Qualifiers
We sometimes modify our predictions to specify the speaker’s level of confidence. Adverbs like ‘definitely’ and ‘certainly’ indicate absolute confidence; ‘probably’ and ‘likely’ indicate strong confidence; and ‘possibly’ and ‘maybe’ indicate moderate confidence. The most common place for these and similar adverbs is after will but before the main verb or any other auxiliaries.
Another way to qualify predictions is to set the will expression in a Content Clause and introduce the sentence with a simple clause like ‘I think’ or ‘I expect’. (Other cognitive verbs that fit include ‘guess’, ‘wish’, ‘suppose’, ‘believe’, ‘suspect’, ‘bet’ etc.) Some examples are “I bet Sheila will be surprised,” or “I expect Sheila will be surprised.”
Modals of Expectation
Modals of Possibility & Probability — which can be expressed with any core modal verb or ought (to) — can convey predictions when they refer to the future (though these same modals could instead refer to the present or past). These future-facing modals are sometimes thought of as ‘Modals of Expectation’.
Consider how the meaning of a sentence changes when different modals are used:
- “This monument will last for a thousand years.” — taken as a given
- “This monument could last for a thousand years.” — a possibility; little confidence one way or the other
- “This monument might last for a thousand years.” — likely, but not confident
- “This monument should last for a thousand years.” — probably, if all goes well
As you can see, any of these modals could replace will in the sentence.
Modals can instead be placed before be going to to establish different levels of confidence in the prediction. The most common modals used in this way are could, may, and might, but any of the other modal auxiliaries can fit as well.
Certain Phrases
Other phrases can be used in a similar fashion to be going to for a more specific meaning. While this is not a definitive list, the most common phrases include:
- be likely to
- be about to
- be bound to
- be expected to
- be supposed to
Most of these phrases draw even more attention to the prediction itself, pushing the eventuality into the background. If fact, some of these might be used to express what is probable or what is ideal in contrast to a future that doesn’t come true (as if it got interrupted or some other unexpected factor changed the outcome). See Future-in-the-Past.
For these phrases, here are the details regarding the form:
- BE once again transforms into ‘am’, ‘is’, or ‘are’, depending on the subject.
- Since the phrase ends in to, the following main verb should be in its base form (Infinitive).
Present Simple
While be going to predictions or will predictions can often seem likely to come true, we all know that life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect. We should generally account for a margin of error when discussing Future Predictions. However, there are some events that are all but certain, and for these we can use the Present Simple tense.
Verb phrases using the Present Simple tense are less about current expectations, instead focusing on the future actions, events, or states that we know for certain will happen. When referring to the future, it’s used almost exclusively for strict schedules, as in “The store opens at 10:00am,” or “Your appointment with the dentist is on Friday.”
Of course, the Present Simple tense is primarily used for… well… present verbs. When we instead use them for future verbs, the only thing that really changes is the context. If it’s not already clear that the speaker is referring to a future time frame, they might include a time expression like ‘tomorrow’, ‘at noon’, ‘next week’, etc.
Colloquialisms
- Most native English speakers aren’t intentional about the difference between be going to and will. While they might naturally use the better option in some circumstances, they’re also likely to use them interchangeably. The differences between the two are slight enough that this is rarely a problem.
- When speaking aloud, we tend to shortcut the sounds of Future Forms.
- Most notably, going to is often expressed as gonna, as in “I’m gonna see you later.” In fact, this is so common that some English speakers might even spell ‘gonna’ in their written messages.
- For ‘certain phrases’ (be likely to, be supposed to, etc.), we might pronounce ‘to’ as [tuh] in very informal speech.
Advanced Concepts
Complex Verb Constructions
Verb strings are complex enough when they include Future Forms, but they can grow even more complex when they are also Perfect, Continuous, and/or Passive, etc. Here are some considerations for complex verb constructions involving Future Predictions or Future Plans:
Will
Future tense constructions tend to use will by default. The form and examples explored in the Will section above are only for Future Simple, so here are some variations:
- Future Simple: “It will rain tomorrow afternoon.”
- Future Perfect: “It will have rained by tomorrow afternoon.”
- Future Continuous: “It will be raining tomorrow afternoon.”
- Future Perfect Continuous: “It will have been raining all of tomorrow afternoon.”
And for Passive Voice (we’ll need a different example):
- Future Simple Passive: “The suspect will be apprehended by tomorrow.”
- Future Perfect Passive: “The suspect will have been apprehended by tomorrow.”
Note that will (or some other modal) is always the first part of the verb string (bold above). Any other elements of the verb construction should only come after will.
Be Going To
Unfortunately, it’s bit more complicated with be going to. Some of these attributes can apply to the prediction (and come before be going to), while others apply to the future verb (and come after be going to).
- attributes that apply to the prediction:
- modal auxiliaries: “I might be going to follow him.”
- the Perfect aspect: “I have been going to follow him.”
- attributes that apply to the future verb:
- the Perfect aspect: “I am going to have followed him.”
- the Continuous aspect: “I am going to be following him.”
- the Passive Voice: “I am going to be followed.”
Note that the Perfect aspect may come either after be going to or before it. But these two variations are not identical. “I have been going to follow him,” means that you had the intention in the past and still have it in the present. Meanwhile, “I am going to have followed him,” means that the ‘follow’ action would have already begun before the specified future time period.
Future-in-the-Past
Recall that Future Predictions are actually present expectation we hold for future situations. We could instead express past predictions we had for then-future situations. We call this Future-in-the-Past. To express such ideas, we only need to make slight adjustments to the usual Future Forms:
- Use ‘would have‘ instead of ‘will’.
- contracted form: “‘d have” or “would’ve”
- negative form: “wouldn’t have” or (extremely casual) “wouldn’t‘ve”
- For be going to, use the past forms of BE:
- “was going to” ← 1st-person or 3rd-person singular (negative: wasn’t)
- “were going to” ← 2nd-person singular or any plural (negative: weren’t)
- Use ‘could have‘ (‘could’ve’), ‘might have‘ (‘might’ve’), or ‘should have‘ (‘should’ve’) as Modals of Expectation.
We typically use Future-in-the-Past when the prediction no longer remains true, which could be for a number of reasons. Maybe we reconsidered the situation and developed an alternative conclusion. Or maybe we’re lamenting that what we predicted didn’t come true. Or perhaps (but less commonly) the predicted verb did come to pass, but we’re more interested at the moment about the prediction itself than the actual outcome.
The main verb was intended to be in the future when the prediction was originally made. Depending on context, that verb could still be in the future, or it could be in the present, or in the past by now. It may be real or unreal.
Teaching Tips
Will as a Modal
As a future indicator, will is sometimes considered distinct from other modal verbs. But maybe it shouldn’t be. All modal auxiliaries have special properties, and those properties apply to will as well, so it’s important to remember than we use will in the same manner as other modals.
With this in mind, it should be easier to substitute will with other Modals of Expectation — like can, could, may, might, or even shall or should — to convey varying levels of confidence or conviction.
Present Forms, Future Meaning
Show students that for most Future Predictions, we’re really just talking about what the speaker believes or expects will happen, not quite what will actually happen when that moment comes.
When those Future Forms are removed and the verb is expressed in the Present Simple tense, we’ve also removed that expectation. That means these verbs are assumed to be real, just as any other application of the Present Simple tense. The key difference is that the time reference is later instead of now.
Contrary to popular belief, context and time expressions do a lot more to establish the relevant time frame than verb tenses do.
Will vs. Be Going To
The two most common Future Forms, will and be going to, have plenty of overlap, yet have different implications. In many instances, an English speaker can replace one with the other to minimal effect. But there are times when one would be better than the other. So what’s the difference?
Remember that be going to indicates that the situation is already on the path toward the future outcome, while will fits better when that progress has not been made. Be going to is more objective (and is often influenced by external evidence) while will is more subjective (and is often influenced by internal bias).
Check out our Will vs. Be Going To page on Insider Access for more (including a video).
Insider Access
Visit our How to Teach Future Forms page on www.insightstoEnglish.com for an overview of most Future Forms. Or visit How to Teach Will vs. Be Going To for a demonstrational video, bonus notes, printouts, a slideshow for your class, practice activities, and more.
Further Reading
Encyclopedia Pages
- Future Plans — different applications of Future Forms
- Modals of Possibility & Probability — modals of expectation, when applied to the future
- Present Simple — not just for present applications
Insights Articles
- project: Resolutions
- project: Looking Ahead
- Why ‘Will’ is a Modal
Intermediate Topics
CEFR Levels B1-B2: Pre-Intermediate to Upper Intermediate courses
