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.  

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.