eslHQ - Future simple / will

Quote:

Quote michèle 2

1/ I think Mr Jones is going to be President.
2/ I think Mr Jones will be President.

3/ A soon as the weather clears up, we are going to walk down to the beach and go swimming.
4/ As soon as the weather clears up, we will go to the beach and go swimming.

I always use "will " with time clauses beginning with when, while, before, after, by the time, as soon as if, unless. and never the be going to form. And "will" with I think, perhaps, maybe..

Yes, there is a difference. Both WILL and BE GOING TO are used to express two notions - prediction (or deduction) (examples 1 and 2) and volition (examples 3 and 4). But they differ in how they're used.

Prediction

WILL is generally used when the deduction is a mainly mental concept (that's why it's usually used with I think, I expect, maybe etc): I know A is true; I know B is true. Therefore I deduce C to be true. EG :
A : Where's David? B : Oh he's on holiday. He'll be on some tropical beach somewhere. (= I know David is on holiday. I know he always goes to exotic places and loves the sea. Therefore I predict that he's on the beach at the moment)
In terms of your example : I know Mr J is the leader of his party; I know his party is expected to win the election. Therefore I predict that Mr J will become President.
Notice that the fact that the election is future is unimportant. In my example about David, it was a present event and it could have been past : I know Janet left here fifty minutes ago. I know her journey home is about half an hour. Therefore I can predict that she will have arrived by now.

GOING TO on the other hand is usually used to make predictions about events when there is concrete visual, audio etc evidence. For example : Have you seen Juliet recently? it looks to me like she's going to have a baby. Or, on smelling the smell coming from the kitchen, I think we're going to have fish for dinner! Your example might be said as someone was watching the election results come in on the TV. By 3am the graphs, swingometers or whatever would be showing Mr J in clear advantage, and you'd say : I think Mr J is going to win.

VOLITION

Volition is a matter of expressing what you want, intend or are willing to do (NB : willing).

BE GOING TO is used to report already formulated intentions: (We decided last night that) we're going to repaint the sitting room. It means We intend to ... or We're planning to ... Notice again that it's not future but present intention (We are going to ...). It could also be past : We were going / We were planning to repaint the sitting room, but we've decided to sell the house instead.

WILL is used to express intentions as you make them. For example, you hear the phone ringing and say : It's OK. I'll answer it. You are saying that you are willing to answer it (present again!)

So to analyse your examples :

3. We're going to walk down to the beach. This is something you and a second person have already decided, and you're now telling a third person.

4. ... we'll walk down ... You might say this in the following context .
A : I'm fed up. Let's go out.
B : It's raining at the moment but as soon as the weather clears up we'll walk down etc
Here B is making the decision as she speaks.

As far as the conjunctions are concerned the rule is Conjunction+future event = present verb : When it stops raining ... If John phones ... Before the meeting starts ... In the other part of the sentence you can use any form you like - it depends what you want to say :
If John phones, could you tell him I'm not here (request)
Let's get a coffee before the meeting starts. (suggestion)
I'm going to go out as soon as it stops raining. (present intention)
I'll call you when the meeting starts. (Decision/willingness)
I'm trying to finish this before the meeting starts (On-going action)
There is no "automatic" link between one part of the sentence an the next. It depends on what you want to say.

I hope that helps and I haven't just confused you further !