Are you not planning going to the pub this evening?
Don't you plan going to the pub this evening?
Which sentence would a native speaker use? I am not sure whether the continuous form is possible.
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Sign up to join this communityAre you not planning going to the pub this evening?
Don't you plan going to the pub this evening?
Which sentence would a native speaker use? I am not sure whether the continuous form is possible.
We can express intention more simply:
Are you going to the pub tonight?
If you want to use "planning":
Are you planning on going to the pub tonight?
Are you planning to go to the pub tonight?
Do you plan to go to the pub tonight?
Yes, the continuous is idiomatic, but with planning on or planning + marked infinitive.
P.S. If you want to imply that there is some doubt about the person going to the pub, which is surprising to you, you can use the negative form of the question, but the continuous, planning, is unaffected by that:
Aren't you going to the pub tonight?
Aren't you planning on going ....
Aren't you planning to go...
Don't you plan to go...
You can use the present continuous or the present simple here:
Aren't you planning to go to the pub this evening?
Don't you plan to go to the pub this evening?
Both of these questions are perfectly fine and idiomatic. I would tend to use the first.
However, notice that the verb plan takes a to-infinitive as a Complement. It cannot take an -ing form of the verb (a gerund-participle). The following examples are ungrammatical:
*Are you not planning going to the pub this evening? (ungrammatical)
*Don't you plan going to the pub this evening? (ungrammatical)
The Original Poster's examples use negative questions. Because these are negative questions, they give us the idea that the speaker thinks we are going to the pub this evening.
This is the ordinary choice between the present indicative and the present continuous.
Continuous means that you are doing it right now. Indicative is also used for habitual or typical actions.
Which is why "Are you not planning going to the pub?" is (somewhat) more idiomatic: it contains the idea of current action. The alternative "Don't you plan going to the pub?" vaguely suggests that the speaker thinks you are the kind of person who generally plans to go to clubs.