DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE
PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND THE GOING TO FUTURE
The Present Continuous is used to
describe an event in the future which has already been arranged by the time of
speaking.
e.g. They are visiting the Prado Museum next week.
=(They’ve got the
tickets)
Compare this with
the use of be going to:
e.g. They are going to visit a museum sometime next week.
=(The visit is not
arranged yet, the focus is on their intention)
We usually use the
Present Continuous for future events which involve other people and where we
have made some form of commitment (eg. buying the tickets). However we
can also use this tense for arrangements that don’t involve other people. In
this case we see it as an “arrangement” the speaker makes him/herself.
e.g. I’m staying in tonight. I’ve got lots of paperwork to do.
The focus here is
on the “arrangement”, i.e. there is no suggestion that the speaker wants to
stay in, which is the case when we use “be going to”. Compare:
e.g. I’m going to stay in tonight. (focus on intention)
We also use the
Present Continuous for impersonal plans:
e.g. Computer City has announced that
it is opening four new shops next month.
We cannot use this
tense with events which are beyond human control, e.g. the weather, because these events are predictions,
not intentions or arrangements.
e.g. It’s going to rain tomorrow
(not It’s raining tomorrow).
(From Advanced Learner’s Grammar- Longman-)
