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Would you tell me if it's more natural use here is what I'm going to do or here is what I'll do in the dialogue below?

Broker: Can your driver be at the pick-up location in no more than one hour?

Dispatcher: I'm not sure, but here is what I'm going to do/here is what I'll do: I'll call him and ask him if he can be there on time, and if he can, I'll call you back, alright?

For the most part I'm aware of when to use will and be going to, but in this context I can't tell which one is more appropriate. We

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    Does this answer your question? In-depth explanation of the difference between "will" and "going to"?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 16:09
  • Thank you for the link, but it doesn't answer my question.
    – Dmytro O'Hope
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 16:24
  • There's rarely any semantic difference between the two forms, but to the extent we could pretend there's a difference, at least two of the linked answers says things like "Will" is for that you don't know what's going to happen and you make a prediction. But "Be going to" is that there is plan to do something. I can't see what more you're hoping for here.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 19:08
  • I'm leaving this open because I agree the proposed duplicates don't have answers that address this question
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Jan 9, 2022 at 7:30
  • @gotube either response is appropriate, it depends on the speaker: 1. what I'm going to do this is my intention, this is how I can try to solve the problem. 2. what I will do this is my immediate proposal, I am making my decision now at this moment. There is no "more natural way" both are fine. If it is true that the OP knows how to use "going to" and "will" then he should know there is more than one way to express the same thing in the future. And I expect that the OP, who is not a novice, is able to explain their confusion.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Jan 9, 2022 at 17:51

2 Answers 2

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In English, be going to is the standard future tense, and is applicable in nearly every case, even when other future tenses also work. To use a future tense other than be going to you need a good reason.

Will-future applies when the future is uncertain, conditional on something, or the decision is made in the moment. It also sounds less confident.

In this context, the dispatcher is making a decision in the moment, so grammatically speaking, both versions apply.

But since it's a professional speaking to a client, it's important to show confidence. Will-future carries the nuance of being less confident, so be going to is preferred.

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  • "Tomorrow will be my birthday" "The sun will come up tomorrow" "Adding water to wine will dilute it" Swap "will" with "going to" and it sounds less formal to my ears. Moreover, there is nothing uncertain about the aforementioned phrases. Will is not only used only to express immediate decision or hypothetical events in the future, it can express simple facts too.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Jan 10, 2022 at 9:12
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Both are appropriate, and the difference is very subtle - in many instances, borderline nonexistent.

There are differences between "will" and "going to," as you know, and this example, on initial inspection, seems to be a case for "will," because the decision is made in the moment - i.e., it's very close to the following scenario:

"Can you do this for me?" "Sure, I'll do it."

Note that here, "I'll" is far more idiomatic and appropriate than "I'm going to," as "going to" can be misunderstood as suggesting that you were going to do it anyway.

But in the dialogue you provided, the statement isn't one of instant agreement. It's more in the nature of a counteroffer. Idiomatically both versions are common. "Going to," in my opinion, sounds a hair more definitive in the sense that the person making the offer doesn't expect the other person to do anything other than accept. "Will" sounds perhaps just a touch less confident in this regard, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it, and indeed you might prefer it if you don't want to sound as if you're presuming that the other person will accept the offer.

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