Learn English Grammar: "supposed to" & "going to"

Were you supposed to do something yesterday? What were you going to do? Learn two simple ways to talk about changed plans in English. Because plans change often, we use a set grammatical structure to express that clearly to others. Once you learn the structure, you will be able to say correctly what was supposed to happen and what actually happened. Watch the lesson, and take my quiz at the end to practice and perfect what you've learned.
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TRANSCRIPT

Hi. My name's Rebecca. You know how sometimes you make plans, and then your plans change and you do something different from whatever you thought you were going to do? Well, in today's lesson, I'm going to show you how to express yourself when changes take place from the plans that you had made to what you actually do. So, let's have a look at this.

So, the way you talk about changes in plans in the past is by using the expression: "was supposed to", or: "were supposed to", or: "was going to", "were going to". All right? I'll give you many examples of this. So what you need to do to use this expressions, you need to have first a subject, for example: "I". "I", then you use the past tense of the verb "to be": "was", then you use this expression: "supposed to". So far we have: "I was supposed to", plus you need to add a verb. All right? So: "I was supposed to do something.", "You were going to call me.", etc. Now, you can use this to talk about all kinds of activities, and I've given you some examples on the board. The activities can relate to people, they can relate to things, or just to actions in themselves.

So let's look at some examples. "I was supposed to call my mom." Now, this sentence is fine by itself. "I was supposed to call my mom." All right? But often, we add something, like to explain why you didn't do that. So, for example: "I was supposed to call my mom, but it got too late." Or: "I was going to visit my friend, but he wasn't home." Or: "I was supposed to talk to my boss, but he was too busy." All right? So you see how it works? You use: "I was supposed to" or "I was going to", plus this, and then if you want, you can give an explanation about why your plans didn't work out.

Let's look at some examples of how it works with things. "We were going to buy", oops. Not "help", but "milk". "We were going to buy some milk, but the store was closed.", "I was going to send the cheque, but I didn't have enough money in my account." Or: "He was going to fix the computer, but he came home too late." All right?

Now, you see I'm changing the subject. So you could say: "I was supposed to", "He was supposed to", "She was supposed to". So these, we use with "was". And you could also say: "You were going to", "We were going to", "They were going to". All right? So, of course, you must know whether to use "was" or "were", and that you learn when you learn the past tense of the verb "to be". Okay.

Now let's look at some actions. "I was supposed to travel this week, but it didn't work out.", "I was supposed to sleep, but my friends came over and then we went out instead.", "I was supposed to teach today, but I was feeling unwell." Okay? So here are many examples, and you can come up with your own. I'm sure there's something that you were planning to do which didn't work out. So think about it: what were you supposed to do yesterday that you didn't end up doing? And then you can use the sentence.

Now, not only can you use this expression in sentences, you can also use it in a question. Now, often it's kind of in a negative question, like this: "Weren't you supposed to go to school today? What happened? How come you're still at home?" Or: "Weren't you going to submit your resume? What happened? Did you change your mind?" Or: "Weren't you supposed to attend the lecture?" Or: "Weren't you going to see the doctor?" Right? So you could also use it in question format, and usually it will be kind of a negative because somebody had told you that they were going to do something and then you found out that they didn't do it. So you can use this kind of expression. All right?

So once again, the expression is: "supposed to" or "going to". If you're writing it, remember to spell it with the "d", because when I say it: "supposed to", you don't hear the "d". So don't make the mistake of leaving out the "d" in the word "supposed". Okay? We don't hear it, but you must spell it. All right?

If you'd like to do some practice on these expressions, please go to our website: www.engvid.com. And you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to get lots of other English lessons. Okay? Lots of luck with your English. Bye for now.