Going-to future is a term used to describe an English sentence structure referring to the future, making use of the verb phrase to be going to.[1] The verb "go" can also be used to indicate the future in some other languages.
Contents |
The going to future originated by the extension of the spatial sense of the verb 'go' to a temporal sense (a common change - the same phenomenon can be seen in the preposition before). The original construction involved physical movement with an intention, such as I am going [outside] to harvest the crop. The location later became unnecessary, and the expression was reinterpreted to represent a near future.
The colloquial form gonna is a relaxed pronunciation of going to. For example, "This is gonna be awesome!". Other variants in different forms of English are gon and a, thus, a phrase like "You're going to like it" could also be said as "You're gonna like it", "You gonna like it", "You 'gon like it" or even "You 'a like it". This now forms a clear separation of the locative and temporal senses of the expression: while "I am gonna swim" is syntactically similar, a sentence like "I am gonna the beach" is not.
The going to future is formed as subject + be (in the proper form for the subject) + going to + verb + any other information. That this construction is distinct from the verb to go can be seen in the fact that the two can be used together: I'm going to go to the store now.
The going to is frequently contracted to gonna, something which the verb go cannot do. In the first person, I'm gonna may further contract to /ˈaɪmənə/ or I'mma /ˈaɪmə/.
The going to future is used when the speaker wishes to draw a connection between present events, situations, or intentions and expected future events or situations:[1]:pp. 18-19 "If you do not stop, you are going to be caught by the police and hauled back to jail." "Our houses are going to be swept away by the impending storm." This form sometimes indicates imminence but sometimes does not ("It's going to rain"; but "I'm going to visit Paris someday"); these same examples show that it sometimes indicates intention but sometimes does not.[1]:pp. 86-89 The "will" and "going to" constructions are often interchangeable. Both can be used in the past tense to denote former future intention[1]:p.65 (e.g. "I was going to eat dinner, but decided not to"; "I knew I would do it the next day") or former prediction ("It was going to rain"; "I thought it would rain the next day"). Since it usually expresses the present relevance of the future event or situation[1]:pp.95-97 it is the future counterpart to the perfect, which expresses the present relevance of past events or situations; the two are sometimes contrasted as prospective and retrospective aspects.
| Going to | Perfect | |
|---|---|---|
| Past | I was going to eat | I had eaten |
| Present | I am going to eat | I have eaten |
| Future | ? I will be going to eat | I will have eaten |
| Conditional | I would be going to eat | I would have eaten |
(The future going-to construction is questionable; I will be going to eat would normally be read as indicating motion (lexical 'go') rather than intention, and would often be replaced by the adverbial construction of imminence I will be about to eat.)
In some contexts the going to form can express unconditionality while the will form expresses conditionality ("Don't sit on that rock—it's going to fall" means it's going to fall regardless of what you do, while "Don't sit on that rock—it will fall" means that it will fall conditional on your sitting on it). But in some contexts the reverse can be true ("After 1962 ended, I would be a star" unconditionally describes what subsequently did happen, while "After 1962 ended, I was gonna be a star" describes intent for a situation whose reality was conditional on the intent being carried out).[1]:pp. 92
Similarly to English, the French verb aller (to go) can be used as an auxiliary verb to create a near-future tense (le futur proche).[1]:pp. 98-99 Whereas English uses the continuous aspect (to be going), French uses the simple present tense; for example, the English sentence "I am going to do it tomorrow" would in French be « Je vais le faire demain » (literally, "I go it to do tomorrow"). As in English, this form can generally be replaced by the present or future tense: "I am doing it tomorrow", "I shall do it tomorrow", « Je le fais demain », « Je le ferai demain ».
Likewise, the Spanish verb ir "to go" can be used to express the future: Mi padre va a llegar mañana "My father is going to arrive tomorrow".
Some Creoles model a future tense/irrealis mood marker on "go" from the superstrate.[2]:p.188 Examples include Jamaican English Creole[2]:pp.93-95 /de go hapm/ "is going to happen", /mi a go ɹon/ "I am going to run", Belizean Creole English /gwein/ or /gouɲ/, Gullah Uh gwine he'p dem "I'm going to help them", Hawaiian Creole English[3] /Ai gon bai wan pickup/ "I gonna buy one pickup", /Da gai sed hi gon fiks mi ap wit wan blain deit/ "The guy said he gonna fix me up with one blind date", and Haitian Creole[4] /Mwen va fini/ "I go finish".