When To Use Correctly GONNA How To Speak English
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– dadadadada 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.
Good.
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.
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.
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I love being your English teacher. That’s it
and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.