gonna

English

Alternative forms

• gon, gon'
• gunna, gonner, gunner
• gna (Internet slang)

Etymology

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

• (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

gonna

1. (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

• 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

• gonnabe

See also

• to (particle)
• coulda
• gotta
• shoulda
• wanna
• woulda
• I'm 'onna
• I'mma
• finna

 

Anagrams

• angon

Italian

Etymology

From Late Latin gunna (“leather garment”). Compare English gown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔn.na/, (traditional) /ˈɡon.na/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔnna, (traditional) -onna
• Hyphenation: gòn‧na, (traditional) gón‧na

Noun

gonna f (plural gonne)

1. skirt

Derived terms

• gonnellino
• minigonna