Three Verb Tenses
- the present (right now, the present moment, etc.)
- the past (yesterday, last week, before, earlier, etc.); or
- the future (tomorrow, next year, next week, etc).
The Future Tenses
There are two verbs that help us talk about the future:
- “will”
- “going to” (or “gonna”)
Will and going to mean that an action or event occurs at a later time than the speech, whether that’s in five minutes or five years.
Formality
“Going to” and “will” may vary in formality.
Because native English speakers de-stress function words, such as “to”, and connect their speech,
“going to” –> “gonna”
Examples
If a speaker says at 2:00pm:
- “I will leave soon”
that speaker will absolutely leave soon after 2:00pm, perhaps 2:05pm or 2:15pm.
The same result occurs if the speaker says at 2:00pm:
- “I’m going to leave soon.”
He will also leave at 2:05pm or 2:15pm, soon after the time he spoke the words. But the speech sounds a bit more informal.
And the same result occurs with the most informal:
- “I’m gonna leave soon.”
Got it?
Let’s practice talking about the future with “will”, “going to” and “gonna”. In these examples, I’ll contract the verb “will” as I would when I speak in everyday life.
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