The IM GONNA Reduction American English Pronunciation

In this American English
pronunciation video,

I’m going to answer someone’s
question about reducing “I’m gonna”.

Hiroya says that’s he’s noticed people
saying, instead of “I’m gonna”, “I’m’onna”.

You’re exactly right.

We do reduce “I’m gonna,”

which is already a reduction of
“I am going to,” to “I’muna”.

Basically, dropping the G sound.

We don’t do it with any
other subject except I.

Not you, not he, not she, just I.

I’muna.

We’ll even reduce it further,

dropping the AI diphthong and
starting with the M consonant: Muna.

There are certain phrases
that are so familiar to us,

that we use so often, that we just
feel free to reduce them like crazy.

This is one of those phrases.

“I am going to”, “Muna.” Do you
have to do it this way? No.

Reducing it to “I’m gonna”
is already a great reduction

that will smooth out your speech.

But if you have good ears
and you listen for it,

you’ll probably notice Americans
doing this, just like Hiroya did.

Let’s practice it: muna, muna.

Lips start closed for
the M sound, mm.

Then I drop the jaw a little bit,
everything is relaxed, mu-, mu-.

Then you can leave the jaw where
it is, dropped a bit, relaxed,

and just flap the tongue
against the roof of the mouth

for the N, muna, then right
back down again for the schwa.

Muna, muna.

I can tell you right now, the
thing you probably need to work

on the most is making your
second syllable ultra short.

Muna, uh, uh, uh, muna.

It should sound like a two-syllable
word with stress on the first syllable.

Muna.

DA-da.

Muna.

Let’s look at some example sentences.

Muna see her later.

Muna try that next.

M’be a little late.

Okay, that one I reduced even more.

I just said ‘muh’, ‘muh-be’.

Muh-be a little late, muh-be, muh-be.

Yep, you’ll hear this reduction too.

Muna graduate next year.

Muna check.

Okay, I’m going to just
improvise here for a second.

I’m going to try that,
I’m going to try that.

I’m going to transfer the
files when we’re done.

So we have the reduction
“I am going to”

to “I’m gonna”, and sometimes,
we’ll reduce it even more.

I hope this has helped you
understand what you hear.

Americans can get pretty
crazy with their reductions.

If there’s a word or phrase
you’d like help pronouncing,

please put it in the comments below.

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That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.