Talking about Plans: Which future do you use?

Many students have difficulties deciding between using will, be going to and present continuous, as all can be used for the future.

Present Continuous

Often present continuous is used to talk about confirmed plans that you’ve made with someone else. This someone else could be an organization, friend or family. We can also use it when we want to ask about other people’s plans for the future.

For example: I’m meeting my friend Jen for coffee this weekend! (We can assume in this case that Jen has agreed to this arrangement.)

Will

Will can be used when we make plans at the moment of speaking. This may be one of the trickiest ones, but think about when the phone rings- I’ll get it! You didn’t plan this in advance- you made the decision to answer the phone at the moment.

For example: I’ll go with you to the bank later if you’d like company.

Be going to

This can be used to talk about plans that you made before speaking that may or may not be confirmed by someone else. Maybe it’s something you’ve been thinking about for a while or something you’ve decided for yourself.

For example: I’m going to have a long bath tonight when I get home.

After saying all of that

Most native speakers of English won’t stick close to these rules except for using ‘will’ at the moment of speaking. They’ll use a mix of all of these, with no real rhyme or reason as to why- they may overuse present continuous because it’s faster. They’ll almost always use some kind of contraction (I’m meeting, I’ll see, ‘I’m gonna go’). Don’t worry! Have faith that you know you’re grammar and you’re using each one correctly.

So what about you? What are you doing this weekend? Tell us in the comments!