Be Going To Statements ESL Games, Activities & Worksheets
Be Going To Contractions Practice
ESL Be Going To Statements Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Identifying, Categorising, Rewriting Sentences, Writing Sentences, Gap-fill
In this useful 'be going to' contractions worksheet, students learn to recognise and use full and contracted forms of 'be going to' in affirmative and negative...
Be Going To Practice
ESL Be Going To Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Labelling, Matching, Underlining, Gap-fill, Sentence Completion - Speaking Activity: Pair Work
This free 'be going to' worksheet helps students practice affirmative and negative forms of 'be going to' in sentences about plans and predictions...
Fortune Tellers
ESL Be Going To Game - Grammar and Speaking: Completing and Forming Sentences, Guessing, Controlled and Freer practice - Pair Work
In this engaging 'be going to' game, students practice 'be going to' sentences by predicting a partner's future plans. Without speaking to their partner, students...
What are they going to do?
ESL Be Going To Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Information Gap, Forming Sentences, Matching, Controlled Practice - Pair Work
In this 'be going to' speaking activity, students describe and match people's weekend plans using 'is going to' and 'isn't going to'. The aim of the activity is for...
How to Use Be Going To
ESL Be Going To Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Gap-fill, Writing Sentences, Answering Questions - Speaking Activity: Freer Practice - Group Work
This useful 'be going to' worksheet helps to teach students how to use 'be going to' for future plans, intentions and predictions. To begin, students read about...
First Day of Work
ESL Be Going To Game - Grammar: Gap-fill, Guessing, Forming Sentences - Pair Work
In this fun 'be going to' guessing game, students create clues for jobs that people are going to do for a partner to guess. To begin, students complete clues for each person's job using 'be going to' and the verbs provided. In pairs, students then...
I'm going to improve my English
ESL Be Going To Activity - Grammar Exercise: Writing Sentences - Speaking Activity: Brainstorming, Discussion, Freer Practice - Group Work
In this free 'be going to' activity, students discuss and prioritize ways to improve their English and then write personal 'be going to' sentences about what...
Let's Party!
ESL Be Going To Activity - Grammar, Vocabulary and Speaking: Matching, Answering Questions, Writing Sentences, Presenting - Group Work
In this creative 'be going to' activity, students plan a party and then present their plans to the class. Students begin by matching party vocabulary to questions...
Prediction Dominoes
ESL Be Going To Predictions Game - Grammar: Matching - Group Work
In this 'be going to' predictions game, students play dominoes by matching predictions to situations and vice versa. The first player puts a domino down either before or after the domino on the table, making sure their situation or prediction...
What am I going to do?
ESL Be Going To Game - Grammar: Making Sentences, Guessing - Pair Work
In this entertaining 'be going to' game, students practice making and guessing 'be going to' statements about planned activities. In pairs, students take turns picking up a card and telling their partner one thing they are going to do before they...
What's in the bag?
ESL Be Going To Game - Grammar: Forming Sentences
In this amusing 'be going to' for intentions game, students invent reasons why they have unusual or funny items in a bag using 'be going to'. Students sit in a circle and pass an empty bag to each other. The student who receives the bag looks inside...
You're going to...
ESL Be Going To Game - Grammar: Miming, Guessing, Forming Sentences - Group Work
In this imaginative 'be going to' game, students watch mimes and guess what is going to happen next by making 'be going to' statements. A player from one team comes to the front of the class and is given a card. The player then mimes the...
Understanding Be Going To Statements
'Be going to' statements use the structure subject + am/is/are + going to + base verb to talk about future plans, intentions, and predictions based on present evidence, as in 'I'm going to study tonight' for a plan or 'Look at those clouds, it's going to rain' for a prediction. Students who produce these statements with the wrong form of 'be', or who omit it entirely, break the grammatical structure so completely that a listener has to reconstruct the intended meaning rather than simply receive it.
This page covers be going to statements at A1-A2 and A2 levels, with twelve activities including grammar worksheets, guessing games, miming activities, and discussion tasks, with two activities available as free downloads.
The table below shows the full and contracted forms of 'be going to' statements in affirmative and negative, along with examples of the two main uses.
| Form | Structure | Contracted Form | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affirmative (I) | I am going to + base verb | I'm going to + base verb | 'I'm going to start a new course next month.' |
| Affirmative (he / she / it) | He/She/It is going to + base verb | He's/She's/It's going to + base verb | 'She's going to apply for the job.' |
| Affirmative (you / we / they) | You/We/They are going to + base verb | You're/We're/They're going to + base verb | 'They're going to move to a new apartment.' |
| Negative (I) | I am not going to + base verb | I'm not going to + base verb | 'I'm not going to watch TV tonight.' |
| Negative (he / she / it) | He/She/It is not going to + base verb | He/She/It isn't going to + base verb | 'She isn't going to take the exam.' |
| Negative (you / we / they) | You/We/They are not going to + base verb | You/We/They aren't going to + base verb | 'They aren't going to come to the party.' |
| Use: Plans and intentions | subject + am/is/are + going to + base verb | used when a plan exists before the moment of speaking | 'I'm going to visit my parents next weekend.' |
| Use: Predictions from evidence | subject + am/is/are + going to + base verb | used when present evidence points to a future outcome | 'Look at those clouds. It's going to rain.' |
When to Use Be Going To Statements
Making a Public Commitment: 'Be going to' is the natural form when a speaker wants to state a personal commitment in front of others, making the intention feel declared rather than merely thought, as in 'I'm going to run a marathon this year.'
Predicting from What You Can See: When a speaker can point to something happening right now as evidence of what comes next, 'be going to' is the correct form because it anchors the prediction in visible, present-moment proof rather than general expectation, as in 'Watch out, that glass is going to fall.'
Announcing a Pre-Formed Decision: 'Be going to' signals that a decision was made before the current conversation, which is why it sounds more considered and final than 'will' in the same context, as in 'We've discussed it and we're going to relocate the office to the city center.'
3-Step Framework for Teaching Be Going To Statements
1. Establish Both Uses Before Students Produce Anything: Start with a worksheet that introduces the two main uses of 'be going to' before students write or speak a single sentence themselves. A labelling task that asks students to decide whether each sentence expresses a prediction or a plan is the sharpest early exercise: it forces students to read for meaning rather than just manipulate a form. Once the controlled exercises are done, close with a speaking activity where each student secretly picks three items to take on holiday and their partner has to find all three by asking 'Are you going to take...?' questions, putting both affirmative and negative responses to immediate communicative use.
2. Drill Both Forms Through a Guessing Game: Move students into a game where they write predictions about their partner's future plans without consulting them first, then read each prediction aloud to find out how many they got right. The correction sequence is where both forms get practiced naturally: when a guess is wrong, the partner responds with a negative and then an affirmative, for example 'No, I'm not. I'm going to have pizza for dinner today.' That two-part response drills both forms in a single, motivated exchange every time a prediction misses.
3. Move Into Meaningful Free Production: Finish with a discussion activity that makes the language feel personally relevant and worth producing. Students brainstorm ways to improve their English across six categories such as speaking, listening, and writing, choose the best ideas from each category, and commit to a real plan by writing a 'be going to' sentence for each one, for example 'I'm going to speak English for one hour a day.' The writing step gives every student a set of sentences they actually mean, which makes the speaking and feedback stages that follow feel purposeful rather than mechanical.
Common Mistakes with Be Going To Statements
Using Present Simple Instead of 'Be Going To' for Future Plans: Students often use the present simple to express future plans because their first language uses a present tense form for planned future events, but English requires 'be going to' to signal that a plan already exists. Wrong: 'Tomorrow I go to the dentist.' Correct: 'Tomorrow I'm going to go to the dentist.'
Placing 'Not' After 'Going' in Negative Sentences: Students often put 'not' after 'going' rather than after the verb 'be', producing a word order that sounds ungrammatical in English even though the intended meaning is clear. Wrong: 'She is going not to take the exam.' Correct: 'She isn't going to take the exam.'
Common Questions About Teaching Be Going To Statements
What is a fun game for practicing be going to with pre-intermediate students?
The game What's in the bag? is a great elimination game for this level. Students pass a bag around a circle and invent funny reasons for having unusual items inside using 'be going to': 'I'm going to take it to the zoo.' Students are out for grammar mistakes, slow replies, or repeating a previous answer.
What is a good miming game for practicing be going to?
The game You're going to... has one student mime the preparation for a planned activity without performing it, then stop to ask 'What am I going to do?' Their team answers using 'You're going to...' for two points, or the other team can steal for one point. It works well at A2 level.
How do I make be going to practice more engaging for students?
Try a party planning activity. The activity Let's Party! has students answer ten 'be going to' questions to plan a party, using vocabulary from a matching task to shape their answers. Each group then presents their plan to the class, and the class votes for the best one.
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