I was doing english exercises about the different types of future, when I saw "will be going to" among the answers I could give to a question. I've never heard it before, my teacher says it can be used but I looked for it in the internet and it doesn't exist. So, is it correct to say "will be going to"?
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1Yes. books.google.com/ngrams/… And if you like that just try to get your head around: will be going to have done– JimCommented Oct 17, 2014 at 20:26
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@Jim: That link is not really useful, since that includes many, many irrelevant occurrences of "will be going to". In fact, looking through the Google Book Search results, I find almost none that are relevant (in the sense of "people actually using the phrase 'will be going to', with the appropriate sense of 'going to'").– ruakhCommented Oct 17, 2014 at 21:00
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"I will be going to the store in 10 minutes" is probably a perfect example of the usage you're not interested in.– HellionCommented Oct 17, 2014 at 21:08
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1@ruakh- you and Hellion are probably right in your assessment of the desired usage but there's nothing in the question that makes that specific. "I will be going to the store in ten minutes" is a type of future usage in my book.– JimCommented Oct 17, 2014 at 21:22
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You should watch this week's episode of "The Big Bang Theory". The boys were watching "Back to the Future" and this got them talking about tenses to use when talking about time travel.– BarmarCommented Oct 17, 2014 at 22:21
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3 Answers
I think this depends on whether you mean to use the phrase with a place or another verb. You can say:
I will be going to America next year / I'll be going to bed soon / I'll be going to the show too.
However if you mean 'to' as part of an infinitive verb then it doesn't work. Compare:
- I am going to drive to the shop.
- I will be going to drive to the shop.
(1) makes perfect sense. Although it uses the present tense 'am', the use of 'going' implies it is something that will be done in the future. (2) does not make sense.
This is an example of future continuous tense.
It is just a combination of future tense ("will" + infinitive) and present continuous ("am/are/is" + present participle). In other words, it's like converting
I am going to …
into future tense.
answered Oct 17, 2014 at 21:05
It is a warm afternoon — too warm — sunny afternoon in late January as I write this. If I didn’t know better, I might even think that the frogs were going to arrive a month ahead of schedule this year. But there will be more of the cold white death before the green of life wins out again, announced by those little frogs who know better than I how to await the inevitable coming of a spring which I’m too anxious for.
Peter H. Wagschal. Students, teachers and subjects: on condensing the trilogy. In: Dwight William Allen and Eli Seifman. The Teacher’s Handbook. Glenview, Illinois, London: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1971, p. 79 (adapted.)
Modifying the verb tense of the clause “the frogs were going to arrive a month ahead of schedule” to future, the correct form of “were going to arrive” becomes
a) is going to arrive.
b) would be arriving.
c) have just arrived.
d) was going to arrive.
e) will be going to arrive.
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1@user1176409 You're about 3 years too late with that question. Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 15:54