Podcast 38 - B1 Going to for predictions

Going to - introduction

Story starts at 10:58

Hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of practising English. And today I'm going to talk to you about... that. Exactly that... going to. I'm going to talk about going to. Now I think the going to structure is something that most learners of English acquire quite quickly. Why? Well, because it's quite intuitive to talk about the future. And we usually feel that if we use going to, we will always get it right. For example, next weekend,

I'm going to take my daughter to the zoo.

So we use it, then, for plans that we make [for] the future, I'm going to take my daughter to the zoo.

Going to for predictions

But I'm going to talk about another aspect or another use of going to, which is to talk about predictions in the future. And perhaps we can divide the use of going to talk about predictions into two areas. First of all, there are general predictions. In the future,

I believe there are going to be cars that can fly.

But here we can use will as well, it's really interchangeable. That means that we can use one or the other - will or going to in the future,

I believe there will be cars that can fly.

I think it's going to rain next week,
or,
I think it will rain next week

It's just a prediction that I'm making, I feel that's what's going to happen. Now there's another use of going to which is more specific. And where we can't usually use will. And this is when we have some evidence in front of us, which gives us information about what is going to happen. So that's what it is - evidence, it's information. And we can see it or we can hear it, or we have that information. And when we make a prediction, we use going to, here are some examples. You're walking along outside in the park, and then you look up and you see some clouds above and they're very dark. In fact, they're almost black. So you make a prediction, as most people would be able to,

My goodness, look at those clouds. It's going to rain.

And in this example, we wouldn't say look at those clouds, ~~it will rain~~. No, we wouldn't say that. And that's because we have evidence in front of us, which are the black clouds. And here's another one, I'm walking along the street again. And I see Mary, and Mary has a very large abdomen, a very large tummy. And we can make a prediction.

Oh my goodness. Look at Mary! She's going to have a baby.

We have the evidence in front of us. And it's quite obvious that Mary is going to have a baby.

Now it doesn't have to be visual evidence. It can be something that we can hear. Now here in Spain, recently, we've had, and we're still having... a volcano there is a volcano which is erupting on La Palma island in the Canary Islands. So I imagine that the scientists were studying that area just before the volcano exploded. And perhaps using their equipment, they heard noises in the earth, in the ground, below them. And they made a prediction.

This volcano is going to explode or, it's going to erupt.

Volcanoes usually erupt, don't they? So this volcano is going to erupt because they have the evidence because they can hear the rumbling sounds in the ground below them.

Story to show going to as prediction - The Last Straw

Okay, so now I'm going to tell you a story. Before I start the story, I'm going to give you some vocabulary and some words that you may need - a parachute. And a parachute is something we use when we jump out of an aeroplane. It's a piece of material, which opens into a mushroom shape. And so when you jump out of the aeroplane, it helps you float slowly down to the ground. And that's a parachute.

Now another one is a little phrase, which is to draw straws. And a straw is like a piece of grass or something like that. And to draw straws is something which, well, I think they do this in most cultures, when you want to decide who gets something out of a number of people. So I could take three straws, and one of them is shorter than the other two. So I put them in my fist, that is my hand, which is folded into a ball, that's called a fist. And then each person takes out a straw from my fist, and the one who gets the short straw is usually either the winner or the loser depending on what you are drawing straws for. And to draw the short straw usually means that you have been unlucky. Often you get the worst of what is on offer - to draw the short straw.

And another one is jungle, which is like the Amazon jungle, for example, rain forest, which are all those wonderful trees that grow mostly in South America. And we hope that they will be there in the future. That's the jungle.

And another one, which is fuel. And fuel is what you put in an aeroplane to make it fly. Without fuel, the engines won't work. So we can use it for a car as well. We can just talk generically about fuel, which could be petrol or diesel that you put into an car. I think, am I right? - maybe in believing that in aeroplanes, they use something like kerosene or something similar. Anyway, fuel is the word that we usually use.

And then there is another expression. Well, it's usually for jokes, in fact, actually, and it goes something like this. I've got some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want first - the good news or the bad news? That means that you have something to tell people, and there is something good about it and something bad about it. You will hear that phrase in this story.

And here is an exclamation that you will hear, which is that's a relief or what a relief. And we say that when we have been worried about something and we then receive some good news or something good happens. And we know we don't have to worry any longer. Oh, that's a relief! or, What a relief!

And my last word is lunchbox. And a lunchbox is just a box you put your lunch in if you work in an office. You don't go home at lunchtime. You may take some sandwiches and an apple and a piece of chocolate or something with you when you go to work, and you put those things in a little lunch box.

Task for the story

Okay, let us get on with this exciting story. And your task while you are listening to the story is to listen for three phrases that use the going to structure to talk about predictions where we have evidence, so three phrases, listen out for them. If you want the answers, well then go to the transcript at practising english.com and there you will find the answers. [See answers below.]

Short story - the short straw

The last straw story

So we are in South America somewhere, I suppose, flying above the jungle. There were three men in an aeroplane - not a very big aeroplane - one of those old army aeroplanes, you know, not with seats in it. It's just an aeroplane for transporting troops or something like that. And they've stolen this aeroplane - these three men, they've stolen it, because they are running away from the police. They are escaping from the law. And the police were searching for them all over the jungle.

And so there they were, in this aeroplane flying over the jungle, three men, three desperate men. But unfortunately, when they stole the aeroplane, they didn't know that there wasn't much fuel inside it. And so after about twentyminutes of flying, the engines of the aeroplane began to go [failing engine noises]. The aeroplane turned its nose down towards the ground, and began to go down very fast.

"Oh, no," said the first man. We're going to crash."

And then the second man said,

"Wait a minute, you guys. Look, I've got some good news and I've got some bad news. When we got onto this aeroplane, I noticed that in that cupboard over there, there were some parachutes."

"Hooray," shouted the third man. "We're going to live! We're going to live!"

"Wait a minute," said the second man. "I've got some bad news, too. And the bad news is there are only two parachutes. Now I can't land this aeroplane. I don't know how to land it, not in the middle of the jungle. So we need those parachutes. And I think the only way we can decide who gets the parachutes is to draw straws."

So the three men sat down on the floor of the aeroplane as it went down and down towards the ground. And the second man placed some straws in his fist, so that the three ends were sticking out. And the first man took a straw, and the straw was a long straw.

"Oh, wow, that's wonderful." He said. "I'm going to live," he said.

And then the third man did something rather strange. He looked at the two straws in the second man's hand, and he didn't take one. He got up and he ran towards the cupboard, where the parachutes were, opened it, took out a package from inside the cupboard, turned around, said,

"Goodbye, you guys," opened the door of the aeroplane and jumped out.

The second man said,

"Oh, that's a relief! He's taken the pilot's lunchbox!"

Answers.

The three phrases from the story that are examples of 'going to' for predictions are: We're going to crash! / We're going to live, we're going to live! / I'm going to live.

Listen to and read my B2 level podcast on comparing 'going to' and 'will' for predictions...

Listen and read about the future uses of 'going to', present continuous for future and 'will'...