Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

Neither. What's wrong with verb 'to dine'?

Answer A: They are both the same.

Answer B: 1 means I intend to. 2 is a little more definite.

Answer C: 1 means I am going to eat then. 2 means I am hosting a dinner
starting then.

Which answer applies depends on the speaker and context.

I'd use the first sentence to express flexibility in when I plan to
have dinner. With the second, there is little to no flexibility in my
schedule.

(2) suggests to me that dinner arrangements are somehow in play:  food
is cooking, guests are invited, reservations are made, you have to be
sure to eat then in order to get to another engagement, or something
like that.  (1) is a more specific statement of intent.

(1) may imply interrupting something already in progress, where (2) more
likely implies that you have to plan around dinnertime before getting
started.

¬R

The present tense is still, as it was in oldest English, used for the
future, there being no inflected form; this is especially so when some
other element of the sentence (such as "at 8 pm") makes the futurity
especially obvious, as in #2: "I'm having dinner at 8 pm."

The present-tense form 'am/is going' used with a dependent infinitive
also often has the force of a pure future auxiliary, as in "I am going to
call on him soon."  But that form can also have other shaded futirity
meanings.

One such is as an auxiliary indicating that the subject is preparing to
act: "I am going to shoot"; "it is going to rain".  Another such is
indicating some sort of result or outcome: "He is going to be rich some
day."

Generally, context will show which of the three shadings of "am/is going"
applies in a given use.  In the given example #1, the sense seems to be
more "preparing to act" than simple futurity, though I suppose a
colorable case could also be made for the result/outcome sense.  Indeed,
the differentiations are more subtleties than bright-line divisions.