• How it is built (construcción)
  • Questions (preguntas)
  • Negatives (negativos)
• Uses of going to (usos de going to)
  • Plans and intentions (planes e intenciones)
  • Predictions based on evidence (predicciones basadas en evidencia)

How it is built (construcción)

The other main way to express the future in English is be going to ['goʊɪŋ tu:] followed by the infinitive of the verb. In Spanish it is normally translated as ir a + infinitivo.

🔹 La otra manera principal de expresar el futuro en inglés es be going to ['goʊɪŋ tu:] seguido del infinitivo del verbo. En español se traduce normalmente como ir a + infinitivo.

I am going to eat. (Voy a comer).

She is going to work. (Ella va a trabajar).

They are going to travel. (Ellos van a viajar).

When we speak quickly, going to is often pronounced as gonna ['gɑnə]. It is completely informal, and we should not write it that way, but it is useful to recognize it when we hear it.

🔹 Cuando hablamos rápido, going to se pronuncia muchas veces como gonna ['gɑnə]. Es completamente informal, y no debemos escribirlo así, pero es útil reconocerlo cuando lo escuchamos.

Questions (preguntas)

We invert the subject and the verb to be:

🔹 Invertimos el sujeto y el verbo to be:

Are you going to eat? (¿Vas a comer?)

Is she going to travel? (¿Ella va a viajar?)

Negatives (negativos)

We add not after the verb to be:

🔹 Añadimos not después del verbo to be:

I am not going to eat. (No voy a comer).

She isn't going to travel. (Ella no va a viajar).

Uses of going to (usos de going to)

Plans and intentions (planes e intenciones)

We use going to when we talk about plans that we have already decided.

🔹 Usamos going to cuando hablamos de planes que ya hemos decidido.

I'm going to visit my grandmother this weekend. (Voy a visitar a mi abuela este fin de semana).

She's going to study medicine. (Ella va a estudiar medicina).

We're going to buy a new house. (Vamos a comprar una casa nueva).

Predictions based on evidence (predicciones basadas en evidencia)

When there are clear signs that something is about to happen, we use going to.

🔹 Cuando hay señales claras de algo que va a ocurrir, usamos going to.

Look at those clouds! It's going to rain. (¡Mira esas nubes! Va a llover).

She's very tired. She's going to fall asleep. (Ella está muy cansada. Se va a dormir).

look [lʊk] - mira

cloud [klaʊd] - nube