Do you plan

Question

Hello everyone,I would like to know about the situations in which I'm asking somebody about his/her plans,and about possible nuances in the meaning as in the following example:Do you plan to stay awake for the New Year's day?Are you planning to stay awake for the New Year's day?Are you staying awake for the New Year's day?Thank you for the answer

Mama Dave · Accepted Answer

"Are you planning..." and "Are you staying..." are the present progressive tenses. Unless you mean to ask if the person is currently, actively making a plan to stay awake, or currently, actively staying awake, that's not the tense you want.

"Do you have plans to stay awake..." or "Do you plan to stay awake..." is better.

New Year's Day is a proper noun and all three words ought to begin with capital letters. The article "the" is unnecessary.

The complete sentence would be: "Do you have plans to stay awake for New Year's Day?" or "Do you plan to stay awake for New Year's Day?"

Hope this helps!

Velimir · Answer

Thank you very much for your help Mama Dave. Your explanation is clear and it helps of course.

Best regards

CalifJim · Answer

Do you plan to stay awake for the New Year's day? Very direct question. Tell me!

Are you planning to stay awake for the New Year's day? Less direct. I was wondering if you ...

Are you staying awake for the New Year's day? Different verb. Hard to compare with the others.

More idiomatic:
Are you planning to (stay up and) ring in the new year?
CJ

Velimir · Answer

Hello CalifJim,
Thank you for the answer.
I thought that present continious tense here is in accord with it's usage for future plans. Would you be kind to give some additional explanation, I don't understand well.

CalifJimAre you staying awake for the New Year's day? Different verb. Hard to compare with the others.

I would also like you to check if I understood your and Mama Dave's explanations on the difference between "do you plan" and "are you planning" so I'll put those two sentences in a context which ,I understand, seems appropriate for one or another choice.
"Do you plan to stay awake for New Year's Day? I'm throwing a party then so if you're interested I would like you to come."

"Are you planning to stay awake for New Year's day? New Year is approaching, you'd better make plans now, so you're relaxed on that day."

Thank you for your help.

CalifJim · Answer

Velimirsome additional explanation

The main verb was plan in the first two sentences. The verb was changed to stay in the third. While you can compare the two different tenses of a single verb, it's hard to isolate where the change of meaning occurs because of a tense change when the verb itself has changed. It's like trying to compare have been seen with will go. There's no point of comparison. Most of the difference in meaning is due to the fact that the verb itself is different.
___
Your examples seem all right, but I don't see what you are trying to illustrate with them.

CJ

Velimir · Answer

Hello CalifJim,
Thank you again for the help.
I understand your point about the changing the verb. I was trying to compare the sense of the three sentences, thinking that they might have only a slight nuance of difference between them. I thought so for the third sentence too despite the change in the verb.
As to my examples from the last post, I intended to find a nuance with those examples, thinking that using " are you planning" in the first example instead of " do you plan" , and the other way around in the second example wouldn't be appropriate, or at least that my choice was the prefered option in those examples.

Best regards

Clive · Answer

Hi guys,
A small comment about the phrasing of the original sentence.

I don't hear people say this. What I commonly hear is this.

Are you planning to stay up on New Year's Eve?

'To stay up' means 'not to go to bed at the normal time'.

Best wishes, Clive

Velimir · Answer

Thank you very much for your answer Clive.

Best regards

CalifJim · Answer

VelimirI intended to find a nuance with those examples

Yes. I'm trying to find it, too.

All I can say is that I would use "Are you planning to ..." in both situations -- maybe in all situations.

"Do you plan to ... " strikes me as too direct, prying, nosy.
The first thing that comes to mind is a situation where a family is at dinner. The younger brother sees that his older brother hasn't finished eating all of his cake. "Do you plan to finish that cake?" is a broad hint that he would like to eat what his brother has left on his plate.
Another one, rather rude: A friend is having trouble explaining his reasoning about something. The story goes on and on in a roundabout way. Exasperated, I finally say, "Do you plan to get to the point or are you just going to beat around the bush all day?"
Even in these cases, "Are you planning ..." would work almost as well. It's just slightly less stinging, perhaps.
Leaving out the verb plan doesn't work in either case. Are you finishing that cake? and Are you getting to the point? would not be very likely to be said in those situations.
CJ

Velimir · Answer

Hello CalifJim,

Thank you for the answer. I'm sorry if my examples didn't have any nuance. Sometimes I try to guess the meaning or the nuance in the meaning exactly like a blind man would fumble for things around. That is how I feel in learning english sometimes.

Best regards

Do you plan

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