Planning to do something
I'm going to fix the lamp tomorrow.
Left column: the order of the concepts, as chips — the slots you fill (who, action, thing, when) and the fixed words the language adds (a modal, a negator, a question marker). Click a slot, here or in the bar above, to choose what goes in it. Right column: the sentence those concepts make, the other orders the language allows, and the other ways to say it — each with what it changes. The rows are the languages switched on at the top of the page.
Try:
| Language | The order of the concepts | The sentence, other orders, other ways to say it |
|---|---|---|
| EnglishEnglish | 'm modalgoing to modal The near future is built from 'go' itself: be + going to + verb. The be conjugates (am, is, are); the rest never changes. | I'm going to fix the lamp tomorrow. or: I am going to fix the lamp tomorrow. — written in full, or with stress on the be: 'I AM going to fix it.' Other ways to say it I'll fix the lamp tomorrow. neutral 'I'll fix it' is a decision made NOW, often an offer; 'I'm going to' was decided before you spoke. I'm gonna fix the lamp tomorrow. casual casual speech. Only for the future — 'I'm gonna the shop' is not English. |
| FrançaisFrench | vais modal The near future is built from aller, exactly like English 'going to': je vais réparer. It has all but replaced the future tense in speech. | demain Après-demain = the day after tomorrow. Je vais réparer la lampe demain. Other ways to say it Je compte réparer la lampe demain. neutral “I count” je compte — an intention, less certain than je vais: it is your plan, not yet a fact. |
| EspañolSpanish | voy modala modal ir a + infinitive, exactly English 'going to' — with the a that French aller and Portuguese ir do without: voy a arreglar. In speech it has largely replaced the future tense. | mañana Also 'morning' (la mañana): mañana por la mañana = tomorrow morning. Pasado mañana = the day after tomorrow. Voy a arreglar la lámpara mañana. Other ways to say it Pienso arreglar la lámpara mañana. neutral “I think (to)” pienso — an intention: it is your plan, not yet a fact, and less certain than voy a. |
Hover a word to see which concept it fills. The verb is always in its dictionary form: every pattern here is built on a modal, which carries the person and the tense, so any verb stays grammatical in every language. Where the modal is an ending (Korean, Japanese, Hindi's 'can'), the stem is computed. What this cannot show is agreement beyond the modal — adjectives, plural objects — which the grammar chapters cover.
For the same idea said at three levels of politeness, see Compare.