Speaking English: You’re gonna nail GONNA!

One of the most common mistakes when speaking English—even for native speakers!—is wrongly choosing between “You and I” and “You and me”. I’m going to break it down for you so that when you’re speaking English in conversation you’ll get it right each time.

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Video Transcript:

How many times can I use gonna in a short conversation? Huh! I challenged myself to write this conversation to show you how we use gonna in conversational English. My colleague Tom and I recorded this conversation.

I’m gonna tell John we were here.

You’re not gonna tell John we were here.

And then I thought this would be more interesting if I created AI characters to use our voices.

I made this AI copy for myself and I used this fake guy for Tom. What do you think? Did we nail it?

First, here’s the conversation. Then, we’ll do a full pronunciation analysis. At the end of this conversation, you’ll have a better understanding of the rhythm of spoken American English. Here’s the conversation.

I’m gonna tell John we were here.

You’re not gonna tell John we were here.

I’m gonna tell John we were here because he’s gonna know anyway.

John’s not gonna know we were here.

He’s gonna know we were here because he’s gonna see that his money’s gone.

He’s not gonna see that. And if he does, he’s just gonna think he lost it. He’s not gonna think we were here.

I still think I’m gonna tell him.

Now, let’s look at the analysis.

I’m gonna tell John we were here. So, it starts pretty high. I’m gonna, I’m gonna,

I’m gonna tell

I’m gonna tell John. So, tell is our main verb here. Gonna, our helping verb. I’m gonna, I’m gonna,

Gonna.

Not stressed.

I’m gonna tell

Tell, we have a little bit of a scoop up. I’m gonna tell John we were here. And then everything comes down after that. Tell John we were here. Little bit of stress on the word ‘here’.

I’m gonna tell John we were here.

But gonna, said very quickly, gonna, gonna. Linked with I’m.

I’m gonna

See if you can do it that quickly. I’m gonna.

I’m gonna tell

I’m gonna tell John we were here.

And all of the energy volume comes down from that peak of stress when we scoop up for tell.

I’m gonna tell John we were here.

You’re not gonna tell John we were here.

You’re not gonna.

Not gets quite a bit of stress. Not. And it is a stop T. We don’t release T with that sound. We just have not abrupt stop and then the G sound.

You’re not gonna—

Just like I’m was said very quickly here. I’m I’m I’m. You are, you’re is also said very quickly. It actually reduces. Your becomes yer, yer, yer with the schwa R sound. So, just think of it as a Y sound and an R sound.

You’re

You’re not gonna tell.

You’re not gonna tell. You’re not gonna. Then our unstressed word gonna, just falling down in pitch. You’re not gonna.

Gonna

gonna tell John we were here.

Tell John we were here. So, we have up down shape of stress on John. John, we were here.

I’m Rachel. I have a background in opera singing and I’ve been teaching the American accent to non-native speakers for over 20 years. Scan this QR code or go to rachelenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. It will blow your mind. It will give you totally new ideas on how to get the sound you’ve always wanted.

John we were here.

The word tell, it’s a verb, but it doesn’t really get the stress the way John does in this sentence here. You’re not gonna tell John. So, not and John get the most stress here.

You’re not gonna tell John we were here.

Whereas in my sentence, I stress the action, what I was gonna do. I stress tell the most. Tom wants to make sure I don’t tell John. So, he’s stressing the negative and the object. John, he doesn’t want John to know.

You’re not gonna tell John we were here.

I’m gonna tell John we were here because he’s gonna know anyway. I’m gonna tell John. So again, gonna helping verb, not stressed but tell and John, both stressed. So I am going to pronounced

I’m gonna

Gonna. It’s almost like there’s not even really a vowel here. Usually in IPA, I would write this gonna with the uh as in butter vowel. But I do think sometimes it’s said so quickly that it’s more like a schwa.

Gonna

With kind of a feel that there isn’t even a vowel there.

Gonna

I’m gonna

I’m gonna tell John.

I’m gonna tell John we were here.

We were here, and here. Stress goes up. Here. Because I’m about to explain why.

We were here.

We were both unstressed said very quickly.

We were.

We were here.

Because he’s gonna know anyway. because he’s gonna know anyway. All of that stresses are one word no. Because he’s gonna know anyway. Everything else just sort of leading up to that peak of stress or falling away from that peak of stress.

Because he is going to becomes,

cuz he’s gonna

So because gets reduced it’s just K schwa Z.

kəz

The h gets dropped in he’s so now that’s just the e vowel, kəz iz

and the apostrophe s makes a z sound.

kəz iz gonna

know anyway.

Linked together very smoothly and not very clear. No is our most clear stressed word, our main verb there.

Because he’s gonna know anyway.

John’s not gonna know we were here.

Three stressed words there. None of them are gonna. John’s not gonna know we were here. Everything else flatter in pitch, linking things together, less clear. Again, we have a stop T. Not gonna. Not gonna. You’re never going to hear not gonna. Not gonna.

You’ll never hear that true T release. It’s always going to be a stop T in this case when it’s followed by gonna. John’s not gonna.

Gonna.

John’s not gonna—

know we were here.

And again, we were said very quickly a little bit unclearly.

We were—

And then more stress and up down shape of stress on here.

We were here.

He’s gonna know we were here.

So in this first part of the sentence, two stressed words. He’s gonna know, our main verb. Gonna know we were here.

He’s gonna know we were here.

He’s going to becomes

‘He’s gonna’

Again, don’t think of putting a clear uh vowel in here. It’s really more of a schwa because it’s so fast, because it’s said so quickly.

Gonna

He’s gonna

He’s gonna know we were here.

With that nice longer up down shape of stress on our two stressed syllables. Know we were here. And again, we were, much faster, lower in pitch.

He’s gonna know we were here—

because he’s gonna see that his money’s gone.

So, we have our primary verb, our main verb stressed, and a noun, his money, our object. Gonna, our helping verb again unstressed. So because he is going to is pronounced

cuz he’s gonna—

Again, because is reduced it becomes k consonant schwa z sound, kəz. And that Z links into the E vowel because we’ve dropped the H.

kəz is

That’s also a Z. Then gonna, gonna. I’m going to write that with two schwas. Gəna.

Cuz he’s gonna—

see that his money’s gone.

Because he’s gonna see. Then see, a little bit longer a little bit of an up down shape of stress. This is usually the way our main verbs are. They are usually stressed.

Let’s look at the words that and his.

that his—

Also unstressed and reduced. This is the symbol in the international phonetic alphabet for the th. The a vowel changes to the schwa.

That—

This t actually becomes a flap t linking together two vowels, the schwa and the i vowel because the h is dropped here.

That his—

That his here in conversation.

That his—

The tongue is just a flap here. Just a quick bounce up and down against the roof of the mouth.

That is—

That his money’s gone. Money’s gone. So stress on the first syllable that has the uh as in butter vowel and then the second two syllables just come in as the voice falls off in pitch.

Money’s gone.

He’s not gonna see that.

He’s not gonna see that. Okay, again the negative word not. He’s not, stop t, gonna see that. And our main verb, stressed, up down shape of stress, a little bit longer. Always a stop t followed by gonna. Not gonna. Not gonna.

He’s not gonna see that.

Gonna said so quickly.

Gonna—

he’s not gonna—

he’s not gonna see—

he’s not gonna see that.

See that. Now, the vowel here doesn’t get reduced, we don’t reduce it when it’s the end of a thought group. See that. That would be a little bit weird so we keep the a vowel see that. That, that, that. Stop t, it’s still unstressed, It’s quieter, lower in pitch. It’s not that with an up down shape of stress. It is flat, but the vowel doesn’t change to the schwa.

That.

See that.

And if he does. 

And if he. Little bit on if. And if he.

And if he—

And if he does—

Does,

So we have the word ‘and’ reduced.

and

I would just write that schwa n not and but ən, ən. If links into the word he with the h dropped and it’s just the e vowel. It’s really common to drop the h. You’ve noticed that here in he and in his. Not so much at the beginning of a thought group, but definitely in the middle of one.

And if he—

And if he does.

Does. This word has the uh as in butter vowel, just like money. Does. And if he does.

And if he does,

he’s just gonna think he lost it.

He’s just gonna think he lost it. Just. Lost. Our two stressed words. Everything else flatter, quicker, lower in pitch.

Gonna becomes gonna.

just gonna—

Said so quickly. It’s very common in an ending T cluster to drop the T if the next word begins with a consonant.

I’m just gonna leave now. I’m just gonna put this here. I’m just gonna go see. Just gonna, just gonna. No t.

Just gonna—

think he lost it.

Let’s look at this word ‘he’. It’s in the middle of the thought group. Is the H dropped?

He’s just gonna think he lost it.

Yep. Think he. K linking right into the e vowel. Think he, think he, think he lost it. Ending in a stop t. Lost it.

Think he lost it.

He’s not gonna think we were here.

Again, stress on not. He’s not gonna think we were here. Not. Up down shape of stress. More length. More volume. Stop t, not gonna, gonna. Flat in pitch. A little unclear. Definitely unstressed. He’s not gonna.

He’s not gonna—

think we were here.

He’s not gonna. And then a little bit of stress on our main verb. Think. Think. He’s not gonna think we were here. Here. Little bit of up down shape of stress. And again, we were said flatly. Said very quickly.

We were.

We were here.

I still think I’m gonna tell him.

I still think. Stress on my adverb. I still think I’m gonna tell him. I still think I’m gonna tell him. And then the verb tell. I still think I’m gonna. Think I’m gonna. All flatter, unclear. Gonna, gonna, gonna, said very quickly.

I’m gonna—

I’m gonna tell him. And then dropping the H in him linking the L into the I vowel.

Tell him.

Now, let’s take every sentence where we have a gonna and let’s play just the gonna three times in a row.

gonna

Let’s listen to the whole conversation one more time.

I’m gonna tell John we were here.

You’re not gonna tell John we were here.

I’m gonna tell John we were here because he’s gonna know anyway.

John’s not gonna know we were here.

He’s gonna know we were here because he’s gonna see that his money’s gone.

He’s not gonna see that. And if he does, he’s just gonna think he lost it. He’s not gonna think we were here.

I still think I’m gonna tell him.

Don’t forget to check out rachelenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. Keep your learning going now with this video. And don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on. I love being your English teacher. That’s it. And thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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