Learn English – Wondering what the expression ” I am about to”

word-meaning

Many times I have heard it while natives are speaking, specially Americans. I can not recall the contexts, perhaps they are very fast speaking. I wonder if any body here could give some hints in some contexts and provide some authentic examples they use in their speech evey day.
Many thanks in advance.

Best Answer

Be about [to VP] is a semi-modal expression, like be going [to VP] or be able [to VP]. It signifies that VP is expected to happen in the very near future, and that the discourse concerns that expectation. How near will depend on context.

John was about to sit down to dinner when the phone rang. ... This suggests that John was actually moving toward the dinner table and the action was interrupted by the phone ringing.

Rumours that Microsoft is about to announce Office for iPad were current on the internet, in exactly those words, for at least three weeks before the actual announcement.

I am about to start graduate school. ... This might be said weeks or months before you actually plan to start graduate school. It suggests that you have been accepted by a school and your discourse will involve preparing to start.

ADDED:
As Bob Rodes points out, about here has the sense, “nearly, almost”. In other contexts it acts as an adverb: I am about ready = “I am almost ready”; but in the idiom be about [to VERB] it cannot be paraphrased this way: *I am almost to go is not English. And in the idiom it never has other main sense of about = “approximately, around”.

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