Thread: В следующем месяце мы собираемся навестить своих друзей!

Two comments about English "I am going to [do so-and-so]":

(1) In some cases, I would characterize it as simply a "marker" of the future tense: "I am going to make a sandwich for lunch = "I will make a sandwich for lunch" = Я приготовлю сэндвич на обед. (If you want to more clearly emphasize the meaning of "planning" or "intending", you can say "I think I'm going to make a sandwich for lunch" = "I'm planning to make a sandwich for lunch" = Я собираюсь готовить...)

Also consider the example "Try some of this 'baklazhannaya ikra' -- it may look strange, but I'll bet you're going to love the taste!!" Here, the sense of "planning/intending" (ты собирается любить эту икру) isn't even possible; "you're going to love it" can only be a simple future construction signifying "you will love it".

(2) In colloquial spoken English, "going to" in the sense of "собираться" or as a future-tense marker generally has a very different pronunciation than it does in contexts where literal motion is expressed. (As in "He was going to the library," Он шел в библиотеку.)

When there's no motion expressed, "going to" is usually "vowel reduced" to something like гойнгда, and sometimes contracted even further to ганна ("gonna"). And the first-person form "I'm going to" (because it's such a high-frequency usage) may be even more contracted/reduced, to something that sounds like амана, or even амо (this last pronunciation is stereotypically associated with African-American speech: "Ah-mo make a sammich" = "I'm going to make a sandwich").

But when "going to" signifies actual motion -- i.e., when it's translatable with a form of ходить/идти or ездить/ехать -- the pronunciation is more clear and careful:

"He's going to (гоинг ту) the kitchen because he's going to (гойнгда or ганна) make a sandwich." (Он идёт на кухню, потому что он собирается готовить сэндвич). Also notice that in the first clause, "to" is a directional preposition that governs the noun "kitchen", but in the second clause, it's an infinitive marker that really belongs to the verb "make", yet is phonetically assimilated with "going".

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Two comments about English "I am going to [do so-and-so]":


Also consider the example "Try some of this 'baklazhannaya ikra' -- it may look strange, but I'll bet you're going to love the taste!!" Here, the sense of "planning/intending" (ты собирается любить эту икру) isn't even possible; "you're going to love it" can only be a simple future construction signifying "you will love it".

Не "Ты собирается (собираешься) любить", а "Она тебе очень понравится". Ни "собираться", ни "любить" здесь никак не подходят.

Originally Posted by Marcus

Не "Ты собирается (собираешься) любить", а "Она тебе очень понравится". Ни "собираться", ни "любить" здесь никак не подходят.

A good point! Yes, we should add that "собираться" always necessarily assumes some conscious, deliberate intention to perform an action.
It is imposible to use "собираться" with the verbs describig actions out of our control: one cannot "собираться любить" (to love), "собираться заболеть" (to fall ill), "собираться захотеть" (to want), "собираться поскользнуться" (to slip) etc.

And that's also impossible to apply this verb for inanimate subjects: you cannot say "Фильм собирается начаться" (The movie is going to start), you rather say "Фильм сейчас начнётся" (The movie will start right now).

There are very few exceptions to this: "собираться" can be used for some weather conditions, mostly for rain: "Дождь собирается" (It's going to rain), but I think the meaning here is slightly different.

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

It is impossible to use "собираться" with the verbs describing actions out of our control: one cannot "собираться любить" (to love), "собираться заболеть" (to fall ill), "собираться захотеть" (to want), "собираться поскользнуться" (to slip) etc.

And that's also impossible to apply this verb for inanimate subjects: you cannot say "Фильм собирается начаться" (The movie is going to start), you rather say "Фильм сейчас начнётся" (The movie will start right now).

Thanks for that explanation, Боб! In English, "going to" is possible in every example you gave, but in such cases it expresses a предсказание (prediction) about something that will happen in the future, rather than a conscious plan/intention:

"In about 5 billion years, the Sun is going to expand and completely swallow the Earth."
"Run for your lives -- the dam is gonna break!"
"Oh, Jesus, amannah puke -- I shouldn't have followed beer with vodka..."

I would assume that in Russian, a construction with собираться is impossible in all these cases -- in the first two sentences, because there's no conscious agent as the subject; in the third one because vomiting is usually not a matter of free will.

ЗЫ Although in the case of bulemic supermodels who throw up on purpose, I would guess it's possible to say "Я собираюсь вызвать рвоту" (lit., "I'm preparing to induce vomiting") or something like that? However, in the context of a person who's seasick or drunk, AFAIK you would normally use an impersonal verb in the 3rd-person-singular with the "logical subject" in the accusative: Господи, меня/её/нас сейчас вырвет -- принести ведро, скорее! ("Ohmygod, I'm/she's/we're about to throw up -- quick, bring a bucket!")

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

I would assume that in Russian, a construction with собираться is impossible in all these cases -- in the first two sentences, because there's no conscious agent as the subject; in the third one because vomiting is usually not a matter of free will.

That's right. But I like to elaborate on that. It is not exactly impossible in all these cases, but unusual and adds new senses. The good formulation was cited by Боб Уайтман : собираться= "to mobilize one's inner resources prior to doing something". "Я собираюсь заболеть" is quite common though colloquial phrase nowadays. It means actually that I consciously plan a period of sickness in my life. "Дамба собирается рухнуть" is also possible but has a metaphorical sense, like if the dam is something animate and conscious.

If there is no infinitive after "собираться", it has other but related meanings: a) to get together b)to get one's things together.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

"Oh, Jesus, amannah puke -- I shouldn't have followed beer with vodka..."

Hmmm... I just wanted to write that there were no "going to" in this example.
It took me a while until I recognised what "amannah" actually means (thanks to your previous explanation)
If not knowing that, I would suppose it's a sort of some Biblic expression like Halliluyah etc. That's what makes the native speech hard to understand for foreigners sometimes!

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

ЗЫ Although in the case of bulemic supermodels who throw up on purpose, I would guess it's possible to say "Я собираюсь вызвать рвоту" (lit., "I'm preparing to induce vomiting") or something like that? However, in the context of a person who's seasick or drunk, AFAIK you would normally use an impersonal verb in the 3rd-person-singular with the "logical subject" in the accusative: Господи, меня/её/нас сейчас вырвет -- принести ведро, скорее! ("Ohmygod, I'm/she's/we're about to throw up -- quick, bring a bucket!")

I agree!