*Was going to

Hello Latin

'Was going to' is used when you want to express a past intention:

1. 'I was going to go to bed half an hour ago, but I stayed online instead.'

'Was about to' is used when you want to suggest that you were on the point of doing something:

2. I was about to go to bed, when the phone rang.'

So 'about to' is just before the action; 'going

Can I use "about to" with a gerund, too?

"I was about going to bed when the phone rang."?

Hello Pemmican

Now you mention it, I have seen 'about + gerund' (can't remember where).

I don't hear it in BrE, so I wonder whether it's AmE, or historical.

Maybe someone else will know.

MrP

'To be about to' + gerund does not work for me: the 'to' here always introduces an infinitive-- as you say. MrP, to be on the verge of doing something:

I am on the verge of retiring = I am about to retire.


('About + gerund' of course works in other situations: 'the book is about exploring Africa'.)

This may be an example of 'about + gerund' - it's from a website with Civil War correspondence:

'One day I was about going into the Castle; a sentinel was about shooting a prisoner at a window for a violation of the rules when Captain Alexander interfered, ordered him to desist-not to shoot...'

Hmm... interesting.
Actually, "about + ger" does not really sound wrong to my ears, maybe it can be used with either the gerund or the infinitive?!

Hoo-ee, MrP-- historical, indeed. I cannot deny that you found an instance, and one from a military officer, but it reads to me as marginally literate from this perspective. It has a modern equivalent, which is also very colloquial, and not to be used in formal English:

'Man, what is your girlfriend about, anyway?'
'Aw, she's about nothing but shopping 'n' drinking coffee with her

I think, yes, it must be 'historical', historico-fictive, or at best doggedly rural.

Merriam-Webster has 'about starved' ~ 'almost starved', which also sounds odd to me; though if someone told me it was an AmE/rural BrE idiom, I wouldn't be surprised.

So perhaps 'about + gerund' once = 'on the point of + gerund'.

But I too would put a 'perilous' sticker on it,

Cf. Would you be after wrapping it? (to someone who had just purchased something) (Irish construction?)

CJ