Use wanna and gonna
How can I use the words "gonna" and "wanna"? Thanks
9 Answers
"Gonna" = "Going to". "Wanna" = "Want to" "Are you gonna go to the party?" "No, I don't wanna go." or "I wanna go on a date with that girl. I'm gonna ask her out." Neither of these are proper English words but they are used frequently in spoken English. Although they are not the best words to learn (I would NEVER write these, except in informal chat rooms) they are handy to know for speaking with native speakers.
These (along with many more such as "hafta" [have to], coulda/shoulda [could/should have]) are attempts to suggest real-world pronunciations of connected speech. As such, they have no place in writing (except quoted dialog) but are a normal part of spoken language.and eliminating all of them makes speech sound very stilted and robotic (much like earlier voice synthesizers).
Studies have shown that people do this far more than they realize even when they believe themselves to be speaking "properly"/"carefully". It also accounts for the very limited success of voice recognition for real connected speech (as opposed to recognizing single words in isolation). It's more a matter of vocal economy than of laziness/sloppy speech. A very rough analogy could be made to the "distortions" of letters when writing script (as opposed to printing). In order to ease the transitions between letters (sounds), small changes are made to make things "flow". Languages have a great deal of built-in redundancy which is helpful/necessary for communication in a "noisy" environment. This same redundancy means that in less noisy environments some sounds can be modified/eliminated (in the interest of efficiency) without compromising the communication.
Needless to say, this is all a matter of degree. Overdoing it can make one sound "mush-mouthed" (and, possibly, unintelligible) but over-enunciating can also sound so odd as to be distracting (and, thus, also interfere with communication).
There was an interesting (but fairly short) article in the May 22, 2010 issue of Science News on this subject.
I wanna win a million dollars, but I know that I'm not gonna.
Actually, these words are very bad slang words in English, and they are slang for want to and going to.
These are improper pronunciations of want to and going to, but the vast majority of Americans pronounce them that way. I do, when I'm speaking informally. I never write them, but that's the way many, many of us speak. It's like saying pa' instead of para.
It is so much slang, as much as elision or the running together of words. As a learner I would tell you to avoid them.
I dunna wanna waste my time on this so ain't gonna do it.
I absolutely agree with both chruhman and athegr. Don't waste your time trying to learn this nonsense, which is simply lazy English. You'll be infected by it sooner or later without having to give it a second thought.
I agree that this is poor English, and shouldn't be encouraged. However, as with trying to understand native Spanish speakers, you had better get used to hearing such expressions and be able to understand what you are hearing.
Just to give a different point of view, these words are very common among kids. In the past they have been a strictly verbal contraction but are increasingly seen in texts and emails. If you're communicating with young people they would hear it as common English.
