Talk:about to

about to
idiomatic, only with bare infinitive Indicates something that will happen very soon; indicates that something is imminent.
 * He's standing at the edge, and I think he's about to jump.

This entry is for a non-constituent that is NISoP. See and. Is there any evidence that someone can learn the grammar of a language by looking up lexicalized non-idiomatic non-grammatical units? DCDuring TALK 18:05, 3 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't know what I think about this one. Possible relations: "he's ready to jump", "he's near to jumping" (I don't consider these two very defensible as entries), "he's going to jump" (confusable with someone actually travelling in order to reach a jumping-spot), and . Equinox ◑ 19:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Lemming check: We are the only OneLook reference with this entry. Others have either a sense of about, which we should and now do have, or "be about to (do something)", which some differentiate from "not be about to (do something).
 * Also, I am not in a position to opine on the utility of this as a translation target, which is why I asked the question above. Sometimes I wonder about the utility of our entries for grammatical words like prepositions, determiners, etc. They are hard to construct and hard to read for normal folks, even when not wrong in some way. DCDuring TALK 20:23, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Not sure; we obviously need to cover this meaning either here or at about. If anything, I think this does function as a single unit, and therefore is includable. Mglovesfun (talk) 13:21, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't know about the theory, but I just came to this page wanting to check what "about to" is exactly about. If it had not existed the next natural thing to do would have been to go to the enry "about", where the same information would have been readily available. What about a redirect to "about#Adjective" ? --Hekaheka 22:31, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
 * It's the preposition about ("around, close to, near") + a verbal noun (infinitive). He's about to jump = He's near jumping/close to jumping. Simple preposition + particle to me, at least from the standpoint of the origin of the construction. Leasnam 22:42, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Right, I think. But other dictionaries seem to insist on presenting it as "be about to" or define the preposition non-substitutably as "engaged in" (which implies a following -ing form). I erred in placing the sense in the adjective PoS. The Websters 1913 wording helped me miss the sense in the preposition section.
 * As Hekaheka recommends, a redirect (but to ) should suffice. I have inserted two usexes in the appropriate sense. DCDuring TALK 00:29, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
 * The context of "before a to infinitive" seems like a really bad way to isolate a single word. Anyway, you can use be about to by itself, without any verb following. Keep or move to be about to. DAVilla 16:29, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep or move. I think. Mglovesfun (talk) 14:52, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

kept -- Liliana • 02:23, 30 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Why close this? There were no outright keeps, rather 2 keep or move, 3 deletes with redirects. This would seem to merit a . DCDuring TALK 02:41, 30 July 2011 (UTC)
 * *shrug* -- Liliana • 02:45, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

not about to
Its negative indicates a totally different meaning: not at all. Shouldn't it be added? --Backinstadiums (talk) 09:36, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Semi-auxiliary or Marginal modal auxiliary verb
Equivalent to going to but emphasising the close proximity of the events in time. Both are used in the past to refer to a frustrated plan. Both are used in the present to refer to a future based on current evidence or previous experience (and so are epistemic in sense). E.g. Look at the weather. It's about to / going to rain or Don't argue any more; she's about to / going to lose her temper.

It’s not used in the progressive but can be used for inanimate subjects: The house was (*being) about to collapse.

https://www.eltconcourse.com/training/inservice/modality/semimodals.html#2 JMGN (talk) 22:25, 19 August 2023 (UTC)