gonna
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Written form of a reduction of going to. Attested since 1917. The pronunciation of present participles with the sound n rather than ng has a long history (see g-dropping on Wikipedia).
Pronunciation edit
- (unstressed) IPA(key): /ɡən.ə/
- (stressed) IPA(key): /ˈɡʌn.ə/, /ˈɡɔn.ə/, /ˈɡɒn.ə/
- The final schwa does not trigger linking-R in accents where it usually would (most non-rhotic accents). Instead there is hiatus, a glottal stop, or the final vowel is pronounced /-uː/.
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌnə, -ɔnə, -ɒnə, -ənə
- Homophones: gunner (non-rhotic accents), goner (non-rhotic accents)
Contraction edit
gonna
- (colloquial, with bare infinitive) Contraction of going to when followed by an infinitive verb: used to express a future action.
- 1931, Mervyn LeRoy, Little Caesar:
- Well, you ain't got much longer to laugh. I'm coming, and I'm gonna put one in your dirty hide for every lying crack that you made about me, see?
- 1987, Stock Aitken Waterman (lyrics and music), “Never Gonna Give You Up”, in Whenever You Need Somebody, performed by Rick Astley, RCA Records:
- Never gonna give you up, / Never gonna let you down, / Never gonna run around and desert you. / Never gonna make you cry, / Never gonna say goodbye, / Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.
Usage notes edit
- This spelling, like any nonstandard spelling, risks appearing very informal. Even when going to has the pronunciation that gonna denotes, it is usually spelled going to.
- Gonna, like the pronunciation it denotes, only occurs when going to is a modal verb indicating a future tense (something that is bound to happen or is planned), and not for lexical uses of "going to" (i.e. the verb go followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with to). Thus, one says, I’m gonna go now, but *I’m gonna the mall is not observed. (In such contexts, I’m going to the mall is said, with going to pronounced more fully, e.g. IPA(key): [ˈɡoʊɪŋ tə], [ˈɡoʊɪnə].) The same is true of other modal verb contractions such as shoulda, woulda, or coulda (e.g. She shoulda come with us but not *She shoulda some patience).
Derived terms edit
See also edit
Anagrams edit
Italian edit
Etymology edit
From Late Latin gunna (“leather garment”). Compare English gown.
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): /ˈɡɔn.na/, (traditional) /ˈɡon.na/[1]
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɔnna, (traditional) -onna
- Hyphenation: gòn‧na, (traditional) gón‧na
Noun edit
gonna f (plural gonne)
Derived terms edit
References edit
- ^ gonna in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)