The voice of gonna?

[sky753]

Hello Everyone,

I have seen a film, in which there is a sentence" I am gonna go down and see about this and I am gonna do it during the day". I have listened the sentence many times and it seems to me that the sound of gonna has been omitted as the sentenc is spoken very quickly.

My question here is how to pronounce gonna in fluent spoken English?

Thanks and best regards!

[boothling]

There is a tendency to pronounce "I'm gonna" as "I'm-a", especially among people who like rap/hip-hop type music. Perhaps the speaker in the film is talking like that.

"I'm-a go down and see 'bout this..."?

[sky753]

Thanks a million!

I think maybe you are right. I will listen to the sentence once more when going back hom!

I have a question for you here!

Is the type of pronouciation common in daily spoken English?

[boothling]

I don't know how common it is. I'm only aware of this pronunciation because of films and TV, and I imagine its origin is African-American.

I imagine it's only popular among teenagers and young Americans. An older white person would sound like a pretentious idiot if they tried to emulate this style of speech (especially if they were British).

[sky753]

Originally Posted by boothling

I don't know how common it is. I'm only aware of this pronunciation because of films and TV, and I imagine its origin is African-American.

I imagine it's only popular among teenagers and young Americans. An older white person would sound like a pretentious idiot if they tried to emulate this style of speech (especially if they were British).

Thank you for your quick reply!

The name of the film of the pursuit of happiness! The name of chief actor is called chris Gardenar who is black and in his early thirties.

And what do you mean by saying pretentious idiot?

[BobK]

Originally Posted by boothling

There is a tendency to pronounce "I'm gonna" as "I'm-a", especially among people who like rap/hip-hop type music. Perhaps the speaker in the film is talking like that.

"I'm-a go down and see 'bout this..."?

My sheltered lifestyle has insulated me from this pronunciation . An alternative, not quite so pretentious or idiotic in an older speaker, would be something like /'gənə/. As this follows the bi-labial (/m/ - crudely, the mouth is shut), the word almost disappears.

b

[Ouisch]

"Gonna" is common AmE usage; many people say "going to" so quickly that it comes out "gonna" unintentionally. And even older white people manage to say "I'm-a gonna" without sounding too pretentious.