Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[worksmart]

I am still a llittle confused with will you and are you going to.
What is the difference?

When you ask someone what he will do on the weekend.
Do you ask "What will you do this weekend?"
or "What are you going to do this weekend?"

Thanks!

[Anuradha Chepur]

For purposes of communication, both 'will' and 'going to' can be used as equivalents.

There is a subtle difference between them though, specially for a grammaraian. When we use ''going to' we are more sure of our actions. Like it is already planned and everything is fixed as in:

The government is going to increase the taxes. (The decision has been taken and the orders will be passed shortly)

'going to' is also used to speak about actions about to happen, as in:

I am going to post another reply after I finish this one.