I am going to be going...

[Pirulo1234]

Hi everybody,

I've found the following sentence in an English course I'm currently doing:


This week I am going to be going to England.


My question is... what is the difference between the previous sentence and "This week I am going to England"?

Thanks a million,


Best.

 

[kayokid]

Hello.

In my opinion there is no difference in meaning. Personally, I feel that there is a bit more of an implied future with the compound form (going to go) although the implied future exists in both.

I say and hear both and in my mind they are interchangeable.

 

[gengo]

Although I sort of agree with kayokid, I don't think the construction in the original post sounds good. There is no need for it. I would say any of the following to express the idea of a future action.

This week I'll be going to England.
This week I'm going to go to England.
This week I am going to England.

That said, the original construction is not incorrect grammatically. I just don't like it, and I don't think it would be used very often by native speakers.

 

[Ebel]

I've only heard it being used in the specific form of "going to be going to college", in the sense that someone is not going to college as of yet, but will be going in the near future. As a native Dutch speaker it sounded kind of strange to me at first, but I understand that when someone for instance says "I go to school" they don't necessarily mean this same instance, but they go there regularly. When that person is not going there regularly yet, they're going to be going. Is this right?

 

[gengo]

When that person is not going there regularly yet, they're going to be going. Is this right?

Basically, yes.