When To Use Correctly “GONNA”

Wait… is ‘gonna’ incorrect? How about in writing? You’ll know after this lesson.

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I was so embarrassed. Is ‘gonna’ bad English? Is it wrong? Is it improper? Yes and no. And also, you have options. You certainly don’t want to be saying ‘going to’ all the time. Let’s explore.
Personally, i don’t like a ‘gonna’ in writing at all. I wouldn’t use it in a text or an email to a friend, but that’s personal preference. Some people think it’s not a problem. However, it would be absolutely inappropriate to use it in something like a cover letter. So don’t use it in professional writing. And if you’re not sure, just don’t use it.
Spoken English, however, is an entirely different thing. Reductions like ‘gonna’ are a natural part of spoken English, and have a place there. Whether it’s a conversation with a friend, or in an important professional environment. Professional English is not English where each word is clearly and fully pronounced. This is not natural English in any setting. This example: And you’re so determined to get there, that you’re just gonna crash through any obstacle. Can you do that?
A business person in a professional setting, giving a speech, use not only gonna but also wanna. We’ll get into that more and other good pronunciations and reductions for ‘going to’ in a minute. But first, you need to know some grammar about when you can and can’t use ‘gonna’.
It has to be followed by a verb. If you’re gonna use gonna. Did you hear that? Gonna use. The next word, use, a verb, it’s okay to pronounce ‘going to’ as gonna. But you can’t use it in these cases. The word after ‘going to’ is not a verb. Going to my friend’s house. My, not a verb, can’t reduce to gonna. Going to the grocery store. The, not a verb, can’t say gonna. So we can’t say: i’m gonna my friend’s house. Or: i’m gonna the grocery store. Instead, say: i’m going to my friend’s house. Or: i’m going to the grocery store. But let’s change the sentences. I’m going to drive to my friend’s house. I’m going to go to the grocery store. Now, what comes after ‘going to’? Drive and go. Both verbs. So ‘going to’ in both of these sentences can be pronounced gonna. I’m gonna drive to my friend’s house. I’m gonna go to the grocery store.
Every once in a while I’ll get a comment from someone or an email when I’m teaching reductions that’s like this: this is horrible English! How dare you call yourself an English teacher? But show me one example where reductions aren’t present in American English. I’ve never found one in fact, once I got an email from someone complaining about Obama using ‘gonna’ and the ”to’ reduction. I pointed out that these reductions are an important part of spoken English, and that Trump, who is present at the time, uses reductions as well. Anyone, everyone, rightly so, uses reductions. But she never emailed me back. You know, most native speakers just have no idea about their own pronunciation habits. You know what? Let’s hear a ‘to’ reduction from Trump. He’s gonna say ‘to protect our families’. To, to, to protect.
Brave law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day to protect our families in our country.
To protect. Okay, but would he use gonna? Yes! He uses it twice here.
Other people aren’t gonna bring it back, certainly the person that we’re dealing with is not gonna bring it back.
So love reductions. Embrace them, presidents use them. Gonna is extremely common. Now, we just mentioned the ‘to’ reduction. You can use a ‘to’ reduction in the phrase ‘going to’ instead of gonna. You can say: going to, going to, to, to, to. We almost never pronounce that ‘going to’. Going to– I’m going to be a little bit late. So ‘to’ reduction, T, schwa, tt– In a minute, we’ll hear more examples of that.
Another common reduction is instead of saying ‘gonna’ or ‘going to’ is to say: going to- A flap T. Going to–
I’m going to be a little bit late. So we can say: gonna, going to, or going to- All of these are good reductions for any situation, and will sound more natural than ‘going to’. You know, if you’re a non-native speaker, and you didn’t learn these reductions, and they’re not that comfortable for you, I get that. I’ll include a training session at the end of this video so you can get more used to making these sounds, so they become more natural and comfortable for you. But now, let’s listen to some real world examples. I went to Youglish, and for American English, I typed in ‘going to’.
Now the kinds of videos that usually show up on Youglish tend to be talks. Ted talks, presentations, that kind of thing. So perhaps a little bit more professional than conversational English. But still, even in these professional settings, gonna is dominant. I listened to a hundred examples of ‘going to’. The reduction ‘gonna’ happened 58 times. The other examples had a different reduction. The full pronunciation of ‘going to’ didn’t happen. Let’s listen to a few examples of GONNA.
Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. So much gonna. Get really comfortable with this pronunciation. As I said, i’ll give you some pointers and help you train in the second part of this video. Now, we’ll listen to some examples where the word ‘to’ is pronounced ‘tuh’. True T, schwa, going tuh– going tuh– This happened 24 out of 100 times.
And finally, the reduction where ‘to’ is pronounced ‘tuh’, with a flap T, going tuh– going tuh– going tuh– This one occurred 18 times out of 100.
If you’re wondering what’s the difference between these reductions, when you should use one, when you should use another, don’t worry about it, they’re interchangeable, it doesn’t matter. It’s probably easiest to learn gonna and stick with that one. So to answer the question, is ‘gonna’ wrong? If you don’t already know, is no, absolutely not. It’s very right in spoken English. Now, let’s get into some training. G consonant, UH vowel, very relaxed, guh guh guh, low placement, guh, not gah, gah, gah, not high placement, guh, guh, guh, gonna, gonna. The tongue flaps quickly on the roof of the mouth for the N. Gonnnanananananana– Gonna. Gonna. And a schwa at the end. That second syllable should be as short, as fast as you can make it. It’s not uh, it’s uh, uh. No longer than that. Gonna. Gonna. First syllable, a bit longer, second syllable just as short as you can make it. Gonna. Gonna. I say it, then you repeat it back out loud. Training is pointless if you’re not gonna do it out loud. Train it with me focus on the rhythm and making that second syllable as short as you can. Focus on the placement, nice and low. Guh guh guh gonna. Repeat after me ten times. Make your whole face relaxed. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna.
Now, we’ll get into some sentences. We’ll train ten sentences. You’ll hear just ‘gonna’ then some fragments, then the whole sentence. Each time you see the word repeat, say what you just heard. You’ll listen and repeat to each part three times. Be careful that you’re not over pronouncing. There might also be other words in the sentence that reduce or are unstressed, say them quickly, just like the last syllable of gonna. You’re going to have to simplify your mouth movements to match the speed of what you hear. Rely on your ear, maybe even you want to close your eyes. Maybe you don’t even want to see the text on the screen. Just rely on your ear and repeat what you hear. You can do this.
In this audio file, you’ll hear sentences with the reduction of gonna. You’ll hear each sentence fragment three times. Repeat each time.
Are you gonna go to class?
Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. You gonna. You gonna. You gonna. You gonna go. You gonna go. You gonna go.
Are you gonna go to class?
Are you gonna go to class?
Are you gonna go to class?
It’s gonna be really hot tomorrow.
Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. It’s gonna. It’s gonna.
It’s gonna. It’s gonna be.
It’s gonna be. It’s going to be.
It’s going to be really hot tomorrow.
It’s going to be really hot tomorrow.
It’s gonna be really hot tomorrow.
We’re gonna be a few minutes late. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. We’re gonna. We’re gonna. We’re gonna. We’re gonna be. We’re gonna be. We’re gonna be. We’re going to be a few minutes late.
We’re going to be a few minutes late.
We’re going to be a few minutes late.
John’s gonna do that for us. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. John’s gonna. John’s gonna. John’s gonna. John’s gonna do.
John’s gonna do.
John’s gonna do.
John’s gonna do that for us.
John’s gonna do that for us.
John’s gonna do that for us.
Are you gonna stop by? You gonna. Gonna. Gonna. You gonna. You gonna. You gonna. You gonna stop.
You gonna stop. You’re gonna stop.
Are you gonna stop by.
Are you gonna stop by.
Are you gonna stop by.
That’s gonna be so fun. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. That’s gonna. That’s gonna.
That’s gonna. That’s gonna be.
That’s gonna be.
That’s gonna be.
That’s gonna be so fun.
That’s gonna be so fun. That’s gonna be so fun.
She’s gonna be fine. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. She’s gonna. She’s gonna. She’s gonna. She’s gonna be. She’s gonna be. She’s gonna be. She’s gonna be fine.
She’s gonna be fine.
She’s gonna be fine.
We were gonna try that. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. We were gonna. We were gonna. We were gonna. We were gonna try.
We were gonna try.
We were gonna try.
We were gonna try that.
We were gonna try that.
We were gonna try that.
They’re gonna be on vacation. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. They’re gonna. They’re gonna. They’re gonna. They’re gonna be. They’re gonna be. They’re gonna be. They’re going to be on vacation.
They’re going to be on vacation.
They’re going to be on vacation.
We’re all gonna make it work. Gonna. Gonna. Gonna. All gonna. All gonna.
All gonna. All gonna make.
All gonna make. All gonna make.
We’re all gonna make it work. We’re all gonna make it work.
We’re all gonna make it work.
You know, if you’re interested in reductions and training, I have a course dedicated to reductions in my academy, and each example has tons of audio to train with. Visit rachelsenglishacademy.com check it out, sign up, you’re going to love it.
You’re going to love the transformation that takes place when you have the right materials to train with. And be sure to come back every Tuesday for new videos on the English language. Keep your learning going right now with this video, and please do subscribe with notifications. I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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