[Grammar] to be + going to vs present continuous for the future

[queenbu]

from http://www.autoenglish.org/tenses/presentcontinuousgoingto.pdf................

BE GOING TO for PERSONAL PLANS e.g I'm going to study Arabic in September
PRESENT CONTINUOUS for plans with OTHER people (arrangements , appointments) e.g I'm seeing an old friend on Wednesday



Is this rule correct?

I know that the "going to" form is used for intentions and the present cont for arrangements but I have just found the above rule.....


Thanks in advance

 

[bhaisahab]

No, the "rule" is not correct. "I'm going to see an old friend on Wednesday" is fine.

 

[Barb_D]

This article, in the resources section of our site, is a good one on how to express the future.
https://www.usingenglish.com/articles/ways-expressing-future-in-english.html

 

[queenbu]

No, the "rule" is not correct. "I'm going to see an old friend on Wednesday" is fine.

Thank you for your answer. I know that in spoken English both are correct but when you're helping someone with an exercise where they have to choose between the "going to" form and the present continuous, it's not a very helpful answer I'm afraid. :-(

 

[emsr2d2]

If an exercise asks a question where both answers are correct, it is the writer of the exercise who is at fault and who is not being helpful. The fact remains that the "rule" you referred to is not a "rule" at all.

 

[queenbu]

In fact I had never heard of it before....that's why I asked. For me the present continuous is used for arrangements and the "going to" form for intentions.......unfortunately students still have to face those types of exercises :-(

 

[queenbu]

And if you google search https://www.google.it/webhp?sourcei...-8#q=going+to+vs+present+continuous+exercises you get 218000 results so somewhere, some place these exercises do exist!

 

[Tdol]

Is this rule correct?

There is a lot of overlap between the different forms used to talk about the future. Think of 'rules' as guides rather than absolute rules to follow. Some of these exercises may show genuine differences, but others may attempt to show the artificial rules that have been synthesised. The existence of an exercise, especially one written by the person who gave out the rule, does not prove the rule. However, this does not mean that people are trying to deceive you.

Also, your result only shows pages with those words; it does not mean that there are this many exercises about this topic

 

[Barb_D]

I am astonished that there are people who insist a rule exists that differentiates between future solo plans and future group plans.

Many try to differentiate between self-imposed future plans and externally-imposed plans, or fixed plans, but not "with another person."