Near future
Especially in spoken English one finds the near future used as a way of describing imminent events. Strictly speaking, the near future is not a future tense, for it is formed by combining the present tense of the verb “to go,” conjugated in the present progressive, with the infinitive of the principal verb.
- We are going to leave soon.
- I’m going to give her a call.
Also used to express imminent actions is the construction “to be about to do something,” also conjugated in the present.
- I am about to lose my temper!
- The detective is about to stop the criminal.
One can also conjugate these forms in the past progressive in order to express a “future within the past”:
- He said he was going to do it.
- She was going to buy a new car, but she never did.
- When I saw them, they were about to make a decision.