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Guest Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

If clauses

Is it possible to use the 'going to ' future in the main clause of an if- clause Type I?

Example: If it rains next weekend I'm going to fly to Russia.
  

Top answer

Hopefully, someone who actually lives in an English-speaking country will be able to give you a more accurate answer. However, as far as I know, 'be going to' is not generally used in the main clause of conditional sentences; 'will' or 'shall' are preferred instead. Probably that's because 'will' is the closest approximation to a 'neutral' future, while 'be going to' implies either that an event is already on its way or 'intention' in the future.

— Miriam

  • Hopefully, someone who actually lives in an English-speaking country will be able to give you a more accurate answer.
  • However, as far as I know, 'be going to' is not generally used in the main clause of conditional sentences; 'will' or 'shall' are preferred instead.
  • Probably that's because 'will' is the closest approximation to a 'neutral' future, while 'be going to' implies either that an event is already on its way or 'intention' in the future.
  • Since in conditional sentences the main clause depends (semantically, not syntactically) on the conditional clause, it makes sense to me at least to use 'will' instead of 'be going to'.
  • " It may not be very clear, but that sentence means that your decision will depend on what is said in the conditional clause.
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2 Answers
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Hopefully, someone who actually lives in an English-speaking country will be able to give you a more accurate answer.
However, as far as I know, 'be going to' is not generally used in the main clause of conditional sentences; 'will' or 'shall' are preferred instead.
Probably that's because 'will' is the closest approximation to a 'neutral' future, while 'be going to' implies either that
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