WHAT'S THE CORRECT SPELLING, WANTA or WANT'A

[Peregrino]

Hi, teachers!

Please, help me with spelling of this variant word, WANT*, in next phrase:

"WANTA MAKE A WAGER?"
or
"WANT'A MAKE A WAGER?"

If this is "WANT'A" ('A) should be a contraction for YA (YOU)?

This phrase is from a comic book from the '30s, the image is bad over this word, but certainly there is a "A" attached in word "WANT".

Thanks in advance.

 

[Barb_D]

As I'm sure you know, the correct (standard) way would be "want to."

These days, you'll often see "wanna." (In fact, you'll see it here on the forums: I wanna know the ... We discourage this.)

I don't know what they were using in the 1930s, but I would have thought it was "wanna" back then too. There is no "correct" way to write it, since it's non-standard.

Oh - and welcome to Using English!