I am a native English speaker. I have two masters degrees, one from a British institution, and one from an American University. Both are in literate, humanities subjects, not stem subjects where foreigners can get away with poor English.
And yet, I make mistakes in English. However, I know the difference between “will” and “going to,” and “shall.” And the best way to see the difference is through examples.
Titles
In titles, Hey Cluj usually uses Will, because it is shorter and has clarity.
Here are some examples from Hey Cluj:
Will Cluj escape the traffic trap?
JamesPublished 2026/09/02 at 11:54 am
Will Trump’s son open a golf course in Cluj?
Fatca Pop
Published
2026/03/27 at 12:24 amWill Romanian streamers have fewer choices?
There are more, not yet published. But in titles, we tend to use ‘Will.” Especially in questions. If I am asking a personal question, I might as “are you going to the party tonight?” But if it’s impersonal, I would ask “Will Bob be at Church?” Especially if it’s about a company or a country, “Will Russia invade Romania.” If I asked, in a newspaper, “Is Russia going to invade Romania” it sounds folksy, or like baby talk. And it takes up too much space.
Going to
When we created a dialogue between Laurel and Hardy, we used “going to.” That’s the way we imagine they would talk. But it also helped create a pun.
Three times, those characters said “going to.” It works for the following pun.
- Stan
- I think I’m just going to Romania.
If we said, “I think I will just Romania” then it wouldn’t make any sense. I would give away that Romania is being used as a pun for a verb, but it wouldn’t really answer the question, “Where are you going?” with correct English. “I am going to Romania,” sounds like, “I am going to remain here,” as in “I will remain here.”
With puns, we might change the rules a little.
Going to and Will both have non-future tense meanings.
Traditionally, going to answers two questions. “Where are you going” or “why are you going.” Until recently, it did not mean future tense.
“Where are you going?” “I am going to the bathroom.”
This is not future tense. Of course, most humans will need the toilet in the future. Put, in the civilised world, we have to leave the current room to use the toilet. We won’t pee on the walls, so we physically go somewhere else to use the bathroom. (Going to the bathroom can also be the act of peeing, in today’s slang-like English. That is what we call a euphamism. People think pee or poo sounds gross, so they say going to the bathroom, spending a penny… etc.)
“We are all going to die!”
Again, this isn’t future tense, but it breaks the old grammar rules. We might die right here. But it’s an imediate action. Not tomorrow, not sometime, but now, the dinosaur will eat us, or the tidal wave will get us, or the airplane will crash, in the next few seconds.
Now, in this case, if I said, “we will all die,” it’s not part of a common expression, so it doesn’t sound as immediate. We aren’t as used to some panicking character in cartoons or films saying, “We will all die.” But, we can imagine, “He won’t kill us, he’s a friendly dinosaur.”
Hush little Baby, don’t say a word, Mamma’s gonna buy you a mocking bird, and if that
Ask a native speaker, who didn’t get brainwashed by youtube english videos, about these four phrases.
I am not going to.
I ain’t gonna.
I won’t.
I will not.
Going to is passive or folksy
I used Going to. I am not proud of that fact. We all make mistakes. Here are some I found of myself and others on Hey Cluj.
“You’re probably going to need them.” There’s no place called “need them.” It sounds like a cowboy.
“you’re going to misspell something, sometime.” This sounds less certain, to me than, “you will misspell something.” It’s softer, less harsh sounding. Passive. I hope it doesn’t sound passive-aggressive.
“you are going to be too exhausted for intensive language classes.” Again, it’s passive or folksy. We could have said, “you’ll be too exhausted” and had the same meaning. It would look better.
We say “you’re going to” to be more friendly sounding. “You will” sounds more forceful. “You shall” sounds like I am giving you permission.
Going to is baby talk
They all mean basically the same thing. It’s more of why would say it. Which matches with mother, which with mamma? Mother, I ain’t gonna! No, that doesn’t work. “Mother, I will not.” That sounds more consistent.
Did you ever see Dumb and Dumber? They sing the following song: “She’s gonna buy me a mocking bird, and if that mocking bird don’t sing, she’s gonna buy me a diamond ring.”
That song originates from “Hush little baby, don’t say a word, momma’s going to buy you a mocking bird. And if that mocking bird don’t sing, momma’s going to buy you a diamond ring. And if that diamond ring don’t shine…”
If that mocking bird don’t sing. Nope, that’s not correct English. That’s the kind of person who uses “going to.” Mamma talking to her baby. Did she steal the diamond ring, or did she buy it? Or are those just empty words to get the kid to sleep? (I say “kid” instead of child because “child” matches “will,” “mother,” and “doesn’t,” and “kid” matches Laurel and Hardy talking about what their momma is gonna do.)
People who use going to:
Laurel and Hardy, Joseph Smith Jr, Mark Twain, Mamma with her mocking bird, Bugs Bunny, Mircea Bravo, me when I’m using the passive voice.
Will
I’ll use an expression from two non-native speakers. This is taken from screenplays by William Goldman.
Arnold Schwartzenegger and Andre the Giant (a wrestler who starred in “The Princess Bride”) were having dinner.
Arnold offered to pay. Andre apparently stopped him, maybe physically picked him up, and said, “No, I’ll pay.”
I’ll is short for “I will.”
Now, if I didn’t know it was two foreigners having this conversation, I might assume it was two royals. I would not assume it was Laurel and Hardy. They’d say, “I’m gonna pay.”
Will is the least ambigious option. So, it’s hardest to use in jokes with puns, but it’s best to use in journalism and professional writing.
Will is often contracted. I’ll you’ll he’ll. Will not is often written “won’t.”
“Will” can be 100 percent certain.
In the old days, they didn’t use the F word in protests. Hell was considered a strong enough curse word. You’d often hear the following in a protest:
“Hell no, we won’t go.”
There’s no ambiguity about it.
If Laurel and Hardy were protesting, they might say, “Heck no, we ain’t going to go.”
Some characters in Romantic comedies say things like “he’ll be back” with certainty. The Terminator says, “I’ll be back.” There is no lack of certainty in will, in fact “will” sounds more certain than “going to.”
Will is more forceful
Because will only has one syllable, the word is more forceful. “Going to” sounds like the passive voice, because “going to” evolved from the passive voice of “to go.”
Imagine the Terminator saying, “I am going to be back.” No, it doesn’t work.
People who use Will:
God, Shakespeare, most monarchs, Confucians, Brits before 1970, Educated Americans before 1914, Stefan the Great, Vlad Tepes, King Sejong, Terminator, me when I’m using the active voice.
Shall
Shall implies permission. If you ask someone to dance, you might say, “Shall me.” In the King James Bible, you hear, “Thou Shalt Not.” There was a controversy over whether the Thou Shalt Not’s of the Ten Commandments should be in courtrooms in the USA. No one complained that Thou Shalt Not was bad grammar. No, instead, some thought it wasn’t secular enough, because it was taken from a religious book. “Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet…” Yeah, I can see how that would offend a Democrat. “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit false witness,” And a Republican.
Shall is much more polite, like the “aș dori” of English. Not the same meaning, but that level of politeness.
Most people never use “shall.” You’ll see it in old movies, but unfortately, most of us grew up without hearing “shall” in normal speech. Shall is more common in the American south, and perhaps in high class society.
Shall goes with madam, sir, Mr, Mrs.
Which should you use?
Different regions will prefer “going to,” others prefer “will.” If you can’t understand Shakespeare, I would avoid “shall” completely. It’s the most complex.
But “will” and “going to” can be used almost interchangeably by foreigners. But a good rule is to see if there is a chance for ambiguity. Unless you are telling a joke, you want as little ambiguity as possible.
Most of the time, “will” has the least ambiguity. “I will deliver the letter.” Future tense. Maybe, in the old days, will meant desire. But these days, we’d say, “I want to deliver the letter” if it wasn’t future tense. However, we still use the other meanings of “going to.” So, for beginners, “will” has more clarity.
“I am going to deliver the letter.” Are you leaving us? Going is the opposite of stopping.
“I will do it. I’ll do it. I won’t use ‘going to.’ I’ll use ‘will’ instead of ‘going to.'”