gonna
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Contraction 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
- (stressed form) IPA(key): /ˈɡʌnə/, /ˈɡɔnə/, /ˈɡɒnə/
- The final schwa does not trigger linking-R in accents where it usually would (in most non-rhotic accents). Instead there is hiatus, a glottal stop, or the final vowel is pronounced /-uː/.
Audio (US): (file) - (unstressed form) IPA(key): /ɡənə/
- Homophones: gunner (based on the /ˈɡʌn.ə/ pronunciation), goner (based on the /ˈɡɒn.ə/ pronunciation) (non-rhotic)
- Rhymes: -ʌnə, -ɔnə, -ɒnə
Verb
gonna (auxiliary)
- (colloquial) a modal used to express a future action that is being planned or prepared for in the present.
- 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
See also
Anagrams
Italian
Etymology
Inherited from Late Latin gunna (“leather garment”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɡɔn.na/, (traditional) /ˈɡon.na/[1]
Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -ɔnna, (traditional) -onna
- Hyphenation: gòn‧na, (traditional) gón‧na
Noun
gonna f (plural gonne)
Derived terms
References
- ^ gonna in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
Categories:
- English contractions
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/ʌnə
- Rhymes:English/ʌnə/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɔnə
- Rhymes:English/ɔnə/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɒnə
- Rhymes:English/ɒnə/2 syllables
- English non-lemma forms
- English verb forms
- English auxiliary verbs
- English colloquialisms
- English terms with quotations
- English non-constituents
- Italian terms inherited from Late Latin
- Italian terms derived from Late Latin
- Italian 2-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Italian terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/ɔnna
- Rhymes:Italian/ɔnna/2 syllables
- Rhymes:Italian/onna
- Rhymes:Italian/onna/2 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns
- it:Clothing