Thread: "I'm going to the movies tonight" - present continuous?

I would say that you are right

I'm not sure about that. How about this example?

"When's your plane?"
"I'm flying at 6 tonight."

That sounds permissible to me but there's nothing dropped from the sentence. I think that we often use the present continuous for definite future plans and (perhaps) the difference between using the present continuous and 'going to' is the degree of certainty (present continuous for unchangeable plans but 'going to' for intentions which have yet to be fixed).

It's simply :

Present continuous (progressive). I'm going to the movies (now)

Future w/ will. ---->I will go to the movies (tonight)
Future w/going to ----->I'm going to go to the movies (tonight)
Pres. Cont. W/ Future meaning. ----->I'm going to the movies tonight.

(Not recommended to teach the last 'tense" to beginners. Much better to let them master using pres. cont. first, (and the other 9 useful tenses) before teaching this exception.

USE 3 Near Future


Sometimes, speakers use the Present Continuous to indicate that something will or will not happen in the near future.
Examples:

• I am meeting some friends after work.
• I am not going to the party tonight.
• Is he visiting his parents next weekend?
• Isn't he coming with us tonight?

ENGLISH PAGE - Present Continuous

Its future with a plan. Premeditated. I am going to the movies tonight. You friend says, the theater burned down. Well I will go out to dinner then. Will with an instantaneous decision.

Agreed its been shortened as well. No infinitive.

Originally Posted by jimbo

Pres. Cont. W/ Future meaning.

yep.

Originally Posted by aging one

Its future with a plan.

nope.

Originally Posted by jonny danger

i'm going to be married in june.

'going to' future tense. (sub + aux v 'to be' + going + infinitive v)

Originally Posted by Asper

I think that when we say "I'm going to the movies tonight" it's verbal shorthand for "I'm going to go to the movies tonight" (future continuous) and that we drop the "to go" in speech because it seems redundant, though correct.

Sorry asp but that's incorrect. We simply use the present continuous tense to express a future intention.

Originally Posted by Asper

I'm trying to get my students to distinguish between present simple (routine, repeated) and present continuous (now), and then I have to explain to them how "tonight" is "now".

Those nice split box picks that Raymond Murphy uses are excellent. They picture people at the their job, juxtaposed with what they're doing right now. The example sentences read, "Ron is a doctor." with him pictured in a coat with a stethascope. In the next pic, they've got, "Ron is watching television now." Students have to come up with sentences such as, "Ron is a doctor but he's not at work. Ron is watching television."

Other models include: I'm a teacher and I'm teaching English now. Jub is an engineer but he's learning English now.

"I'm going to the movies tonight" - present continuous?

It's future simple replacing "will" with "be going to"

from Jimbo's fine link:

ENGLISH PAGE - Simple Future

Simple Future


FORM Will

[will + verb]

FORM Be Going To

[am/is/are + going to + verb]

I will go to the movies tonight.

I'm going to go to the movies tonight. (drop "go to" sometimes in common speech)

Originally Posted by crew

absolutely not.

absolutely yes, check out Jimbo's link. ENGLISH PAGE - Simple Future

or this:

Advanced Writing Course

GRAMMAR & STRUCTURE
Future Simple

Definition
The future simple tense describes actions that happen in the future.

Example

I will visit my friend Laura tomorrow.
I am going to visit my friend Laura tomorrow.

Explanation

The future simple:

• uses will + verb to describe actions decided at the moment of speaking or writing, or actions that are not certain.
  For example: I think I will eat dinner at 6:00 tonight.

• uses to be going to + verb to describe actions or events already decided now.
  For example: I am going to eat dinner at 6:00 tonight.

Originally Posted by crew

Let's fight about it.

o.k.

here's something that can help the students:

http://www.chabotcollege.edu/Languag...0book--pdf.pdf

The future can be made two ways

a) with

will

b) with

be going to.

Statements

Statements using

will

will + simple form

Statements using

be going to

am/is/are going to + simple form

1. Sometimes

will and be going to are different. Some simple

rules.

Most of the time,

will and be going to have the same meaning. There are a

few times, however, that only one sounds right to an American. The complete
rules are pretty involved and have a bunch of exceptions, but if you follow the
rules below, you’ll be okay nearly all of the time. (If you want a more complete
explanation, see

)

A. You can use both

will and be going to to show that someone thinks that

this action will happen in the future (predictions).

B. If you are volunteering to help or promising to do something, use

will.

C. If you are describing a plan that was made in the past but will be
completed in the future, it’s safer to use

be going to. Will often

sounds wrong.