[Grammar] Not about to VS Not going to

[PromVille]

What is the difference between

I am not about to do it

I am not going to do it

?

 

[tedmc]

1 means the person is not going to do something soon. He may do it later.

2 means the person will not do it.

 

[emsr2d2]

What is the difference between the following sentences?

1. I am not about to do it.

2. I am not going to do it.
[STRIKE]?[/STRIKE]

Note my changes above. Using a full sentence with a question mark at the end is much neater than separating the words of the question from the question mark three lines later as you originally did. Whenever you give us more than one sentence to look at or to compare, please number them as it makes responding easier. Remember to end every sentence with one appropriate punctuation mark.

 

[Yankee]

"not about to" is more emphatic for me.

 

[GoesStation]

"not about to" is more emphatic for me.

That's right. In spoken American English, "I'm not about to spend $50,000 on a new boat" is an emphatic way to say I would definitely not spend that much money for a boat. In other contexts, "I'm not about to do it" could mean I'm not doing it soon, whatever "it" may be.

 

[PromVille]

So, it's more emphatic but the sense is the same?

 

[Yankee]

Yes.

 

[Tdol]

It has two senses- it could be the emphatic one or it could imply that I am not going to do it in the near future, without committing beyond that. Politicians, for instance, may use it in the second sense to try to hide their future intentions. The person who thinks that such a price for a new boat is ridiculous will use it in the first sense.

 

[PromVille]

By the second sense you want to say it may mean

I am not going to do it now but maybe I will do it later?

 

[Rover_KE]

I see you asked the same question in WordReference, after receiving many replies here.

 

[PromVille]

If I have a question, I try to ask it everywhere because 1) I don't understand logic of foreign people and 2) threads often stay unfinished - I get some answers and no other replies.
This way I have to get a lot of answers to finally find one which can be perfectly comprehended by my brain.