Going To vs Will

Last time out we talked about the future tenses in general. Today we're going to talk about the difference between going to and will.

I have taught English to a lot of learners from all around the world. I notice that the majority of my students tend to overuse will, when going to or another future tense should be used. This is probably because "will" is seen as the future tense.

An important thing to remember is that "will" cannot be used when you have intentions or plans. For example, if you decided yesterday to go to the party next week, you cannot say, "I'll go to the party." Instead you should say either, "I'm going to the party" or "I'm going to go to the party."

"Going to" is used when you have an intention to do something or a plan to do something. Homework is a great example:

• What are you going to do this weekend?
• I'm going to do my homework.

You intention or plan is to do homework this weekend.

Click here for a more detailed explanation, along with examples and exercises.