Will v going to

Question

Question: Plus tard, nous aurons un nouvel apartment.

Translations:

Later, we are going to have a new flat.Later on, we had a new flat.Later, we will have a new flat.

I thought it was strange that you have two future English forms with 'will' and 'going to' but I can't find an explanation of the different translations and appropriate use in French.

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Al,
To supplement Maarten's answer, here are some links on the future tense:
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/glossary/temporality/le-futur-future
verb-tense-mood/the-french-near-future-le-futur-proche
/verb-tense-mood/the-french-future-tense-le-futur-simple
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

French future tense - ‘nous aurons’ in this case is usually translated as ‘will (verb)”; future proche - (aller) infinitive (nous allons (verb)) is translated as ‘going to (verb)’.

There is no strict time distinction applicable, and in modern spoken French, future proche is used more frequently.

One nuance noted on a number of ‘spoken French’ sites, is that future proche is for an event occurring “soon” with high certainty, whereas future tense itself is down the track a bit, and although definitely intended, may sometimes have a slight element of doubt because of the time gap before it will happen (not a lot though).

Ultimately, knowing exactly when the event is to happen with either ‘tense’ requires further context.

There are lessons covering these topics in the curriculum here.