Grammar · Talking About the Future
Future in the Past (Was Going To)
She was going to catch the train – and then, in one version of her life, she didn’t. Learn how English looks forward from the past, with the split-timeline romance Sliding Doors.
Grammar › Talking About the Future › Future in the Past (Was Going To)
The rule in one sentenceTo look into the future from a moment in the past, step every future form one tense back: was going to for a plan or intention someone had then, and would for what was still to come – what people said, expected or could not yet know.
About the film
Sliding Doors (1998) is a romantic comedy-drama set in London. On a thoroughly disastrous morning, Helen Quilley is abruptly dismissed from her public-relations job and hurries back to the Underground, because she was going to head straight home and lick her wounds in private. At the precise moment the carriage doors begin to slide shut, the narrative splits into two parallel timelines – in one she squeezes aboard, in the other she is left stranded on the platform – and nobody watching could predict how profoundly that fraction of a second would matter.
What does it do?
Every story narrated in the past contains its own future, still unwritten from the characters’ point of view. As Helen races down towards the platform, the remainder of her day genuinely lies ahead of her, even though, for the audience, the entire film is already being recounted in the past tense. English therefore needs a mechanism for standing at that earlier moment and gazing forward, and that is precisely what this grammar provides.
was going to captures a plan or intention exactly as it existed at the time, and it frequently carries a faint suggestion that events subsequently took a different course. would, by contrast, is essentially the past of will: it either reports what somebody said, assumed or predicted about the future, or it allows the narrator to step outside the story and reveal what was approaching.
The was going to tiles express Helen’s own intentions, viewed from inside that chaotic morning. The would tiles, meanwhile, peer over her shoulder, describing a future that remained invisible to her but is perfectly obvious to the storyteller.
In relaxed conversation, both structures are almost invariably contracted, so train your ear to catch them:
Helen was going to catch that train. She could not know that missing it would lead her down a completely different path.
The first sentence reports her plan from the inside; the second is the storyteller speaking, someone who already knows that two diverging paths are waiting.
Visual guide
Teacher Teddy’s illustrated guide to this rule is being drawn — the full swipe-through infographic will appear here soon.
How to make it
was going to – a past plan
Helen was going to go straight home after losing her job.
She wasn’t going to let one bad morning ruin her whole day.
wasn’t / weren’t going to + base verbWas she really going to catch that train?
In questions, was or were moves in front of the subject.would – the future seen from the past
She hoped the next train would come quickly.
She never thought the doors wouldn’t wait for her.
would not = wouldn’tWould one second really make any difference?
In questions, would simply moves in front of the subject.When to use each one
was going to – plans and intentions
would – what was still to come
Words that help: plan or prediction?
Examine the words surrounding the gap, because they reveal whose point of view you are currently occupying.
was going to → a plan, often broken
would → looking ahead from the past
Common mistakes
❌ Helen was going to caught the train home.
✅ Helen was going to catch the train home.
The past time is carried entirely by was, so going to must always be followed by the bare base verb.
❌ That morning, she thought she will be home early.
✅ That morning, she thought she would be home early.
Viewed from a moment that is already in the past, will automatically shifts back to would.
❌ She said she is going to take the Tube.
✅ She said she was going to take the Tube.
After a past reporting verb such as said, the original is going to normally shifts back to was going to.
❌ Helen would catch the train, but she missed it.
✅ Helen was going to catch the train, but she missed it.
Plain would tends to describe what genuinely happened later, whereas a plan that collapsed requires was going to.
One more thing
This section ventures further, into the more literary forms you are likely to encounter in novels and serious film criticism.
Was about to puts the future seconds away, and was to have + past participle tells the reader, clearly and formally, that an arrangement never happened. A critic might write that Helen’s day was to have been perfectly ordinary. And in literary narration, would can jump far ahead of the story: it was a morning she would remember for a long time. The effect is a slight shiver – the narrator knows something the character does not.
✅ Helen was about to step onto the train when the doors began to close.
✅ That morning was to have been an ordinary working day.
Practice: choose the right form
Eight questions: for each one, decide whether you are standing inside someone’s plan or gazing ahead from a past moment, and you will receive the answer together with a brief explanation.
1. Helen ___ go straight home after losing her job.
A plan seen from a past moment → was going to.
2. She had no idea that one second ___ change everything.
A future seen from the past → would.
3. Helen was going to ___ the train.
Going to + base verb → catch.
4. She said she ___ take the Tube home.
After said, the plan moves back → was going to.
5. She hoped the next train ___ come soon.
A hope about the future, seen from the past → would.
6. I ___ call you, but my phone died.
A plan that failed → was going to.
7. Helen ___ step onto the train when the doors began to close.
Seconds away, then interrupted → was about to.
8. Little did she know that the doors ___ decide so much.
The storyteller’s view of what was coming → would.
Your turn
Choose one ending. Then listen to your sentence.
Every sentence here is correct. Pick the one that is true for you. Say it out loud too!
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