These questions are always used to talk about the future.
These questions are often used to talk about future plans or intentions.
- What are you going to do tonight?
- When is he going to tell us what happened?
But we can use them for anything in the future.
- When is the movie going to start?
- What month is the weather going to become cold?
Question Word + be verb + subject + going + infinitive…?
- What are you going to do this weekend?
- When is he going to arrive?
- How are you going to go to the party?
- Why are you not going to go to the meeting?
- Who are you going to invite to the party?
- Where are you going to go on your vacation?
It is also possible to use an adjective, noun, or prepositional phrase. We just need to use the verb “to be”.
Question Word + be verb + subject + going to be…?
- When is the weather going to be warm?
- When is it going to be ready?
- When are you going to be at home?
- When is he going to be a manager?
Remember that some questions follow a different pattern.
- Who is going to be invited to the party?
- What is going to happen to us?
- How many cookies are you going to make?
- Who is going to come?
- How often are you going to exercise when you start your new diet?
- How much are you going to charge for your car?
- What food is he going to bring?
Bonus Tips and Points
1. “Going + infinitive” almost always has the same meaning as “will”. They both talk about the future, so we can use either one and the listener can easily understand.
- Is it going to rain?
(=Will it rain?) - Is it going to work?
(=Will it work?) - Are they going to get married?
(=Will they get married?)
2. These are yes/no questions, so we can answer with a short or long answer.
Are they going to come?
- Yes, they are going to come.
- No, they are not going to come.
- Yes, they are.
- No, they aren’t.
- Yes.
- No.
Real-World English Conversations
A) Are you going to do anything fun during the holiday?
B) I don’t have anything special planned. I’m probably just going to stay home and relax.
A) That sounds good.
A) Is he going to be angry when he finds out he didn’t win the contest?
B) No. He isn’t going to be angry. He is a very calm guy.
A) Are we going to leave soon?
B) 10 minutes.
A) Are you going to look for a new job?
B) I think so. I need a new challenge.
A) Is Mark going to be here soon?
B) He just sent me a message and he said that he will be here in less than an hour.
A) Okay, cool.
Study these free English lessons to improve your English speaking. If you learn these common sentence patterns well, then your English speaking will improve greatly and you will be able to have fluent conversations in English in the near future! Study the lessons well, practice using the sentences and questions at home and in real life, and make sure to come back to review the material so you do not forget. If you do these three things, then you will be speaking English like a native English speaker in no time!
English Sentence Patterns for Speaking Index
