You have probably already come across some of the expressions mentioned in the title of this article. You may have looked them up in the dictionary in vain, you may have found their meaning, or you may have deduced it yourself. In this article, we will explain what these words are, when and where they are used, and when you should never use them.
These are colloquial and non-literal words. They are very common in everyday spoken language, both in the speech of ordinary people and in the speech of politicians, businessmen, teachers, etc.
However, they are not Americanisms, as many often believe. The British use them too, though probably less frequently. You can find them, for example, in the songs of The Beatles (for example, the famous song I wanna hold your hand.)
These words are actually exact transcriptions of the fast words going to, want to, have got to. Grammatical words of this type are weakened and pronounced very weakly in English.
This results in a certain amount of conflation and conjugation. In spoken form, everyone does this, unless they are trying to appear too formal. In written form, they only appear in very informal cases, such as emails to friends, chat, etc.
Now let’s take a closer look at each expression:
GONNA = going to
The form gonna/’gɒnə/ is used to express intention, purpose, or a certain future:
- I’m gonna watch TV tonight.
- You’re gonna like that.
- I’m not gonna tell you anything.
- It’s gonna rain.
It’s important to use the verb be here, so I’m gonna, you’re gonna, he’s gonna…
WANNA = want to
The form wanna/’wɒnə/ is simply to want, followed by another verb. This is always in the infinitive form with TO. Then the weakened TO “sticks” to WANT to form wanna
- I wanna hold your hand.
- I don’t wanna be late.
- What do you wanna do?
If you use this form in the third person singular, you are committing a grammatical error. The third person is not want to, but wants to. However, in colloquial English, wanna is also used in the third person.
GOTTA = have got to
The form gotta/’gɒtə/ replaces the rather long have got to, i.e. have to.
- I gotta go.
- Do what you gotta do.
- I gotta tell you something.
This word can also be used with the verb have:
- I’ve gotta go.
- He’s gotta learn.
