I had always understood that using the simple present tense or the compound "going to do something" worked exactly the same in English as Spanish. Something planned or intended for the future. (Not the present continuous)
Visitamos a Lola este fin de semana.We are visiting Lola this weekend.All the above sentences mean exactly the same thing.
Hola Ian
The main message in this lesson is to highlight the difference between the English:
I am seeing Jack this weekend.
and its equivalent in Spanish to convey the same thing (expressing something you are going to do):
Voy a ver a Jack este fin de semana.
If you compare the two structures used, in English you are using "am seeing" but the Spanish is using "am going to see".
So, if an English speaker is asked to say something like: "He is going out with her tonight" (future, but using the structure of the present continuous as in I am doing something now), he/she could wrongly think that in Spanish you can also use the present continuous structure, saying "Él está saliendo con ella esta noche" and that would be a mistake, because for this we'd use El Futuro Próximo: ''Él va a salir con ella esta noche".
I hope this clarified it
Saludos
Inma
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