If I remember correctly, Be going to is used to talk about future plans, so in this case I believe I can replace it with "will".
Now, my question is I want to know whether these sentence below are equivalent or not. And tell me if there's a mistake.
- Alex is going home at 4 o'clock.
- Alex is going to go home at 4 o'clock/Alex will go home at 4 o'clock.
Best Answer
There's three verb tenses here, and they're all different in function.
Present continuous for future plans means the decision is made, and there's every reason to believe it will happen. "Alex is going home at 4 o'clock" means Alex has definite plans to go home at 4:00, with no intention of changing them.
"will"-future or "simple future" are guesses about the future without any evidence that it's right, or dependent on a condition. "Alex will go home at 4 o'clock" is just a guess as to what will happen. It's often accompanied by a hedge, like "I think" or "I guess", or by a condition, like, "If I tell her to, Alex will go home at 4 o'clock".
"be going to"-future is the general future form of English. Almost every sentence about the future could use this form, though it's not always the most natural. So, Alex is going to go home at 4 o'clock could mean Alex has a definite plan, or that it's just a random guess, or somewhere in between.