6

If "gonna" is a short form for "going to"

Can 'I am going to school' be said as 'I am gonna school'?

For clarification here, "school" is a noun.

Kit Z. Fox
  • 27,819
FindingNemo
  • 989
  • 3
    In spoken English, in my dialect anyway, in a sentence like "I'm going to school", I would elide the to with school rather than the verb: "I'm goin' t'school." On the other hand, I would say "I'm gonna school you." I would guess that the difference is in whether the to is part of an infinitive verb or part of an object phrase (or howsomever the grammar actually works, which I am no expert on) and probably has something to do with how I would naturally assign emphasis to the words in the sentence. – Kit Z. Fox Mar 06 '14 at 18:17
  • 2
    Short answer: no, you never say that. Use 'gonna' only in the same instances where you would use 'will', that is, referring to the future. – Mitch Mar 06 '14 at 18:22
  • 2
    They're both contracted, but to different forms. ['ɡənə] occurs before an infinitive (it's a periphrastic modal auxiliary), and ['ɡowənə] occurs before a noun (it's a motion verb + a directional preposition). The fact that written English doesn't account for the difference is hardly surprising; written English doesn't account for actual speech very well at all. – John Lawler Mar 06 '14 at 18:42
  • Writing dialect, you might even go for 'Ah'm gonna school', but unless there is a specific reason not to use standard English, stick with 'I'm (or I am) going to school'. – Leon Conrad Mar 06 '14 at 18:57
  • My best advice is that never use it in a formal writing. In addition the following link might give you a rough idea about that : http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/188/using-gonna-in-written-english – Hakan Mar 06 '14 at 18:10

4 Answers4

6

"Gonna" is shorthand for "going to" (just like "wanna" is shorthand for "want to") but gonna is used in place of the future tense of "going to". This link explains it better.

In your example, "gonna" works if you add a word, specifically a verb.

I am gonna head to school.

Also, this:

I am gonna go to school.

Even though, if you wrote it out it would say

I am going to go to school.

Even though "gonna" is supposed to be "going to", in the sentence "I am going to school," the verb "am" (Present of to be) is an auxillary verb and combining this with "going" makes the present progressive form of to go. Uh, I guess this link could help a little here.

But from what I can tell, there's always an infinitive form in sentences where "gonna" replaces the present progressive form of "to go". The structure seems to be something like... [Present progressive form of "to go"] + [infinitive form of secondary verb] == gonna + [verb]

See these examples:

I am going to fight him to the death -> I am gonna fight him to the death

I am going to hang out at the mall -> I am gonna hang out at the mall

It's not normal, but that's what I am going to do -> It's not normal, but that's what I am gonna do

Community
  • 1
Ice-9
  • 1,017
0

Some verbs can only be used with an object. Since "I am gonna school" doesn't make sense while "I am gonna school you" does, "gonna" is possibly such a verb.

Marthaª
  • 32,910
user19087
  • 101
0

"Gonna" should stick with the most informal prose, and also be followed by a verb, e.g. Tonight, I'm gonna have some fun by the lake".

Elian
  • 43,007
0

Going to sth is a way of expressing a future action or intention, but not every colocation of the words going and to means that the phrase is to be interpreted this way. To sth is not necessarily an infinitive; it may also be a prepositional phrase headed by to and referring to a place.

Gonna is quite informal, I wouldn't say that using it in the manner you suggest is proscribed, but I have only rarely encountered it.

Gonna as a contraction of going to is usually used for the first usage, at least in American English. I'm gonna Portland for New Years' makes me think Portland is being used as a verb, to do something that is evocative of Portland (perhaps, drive around in a Subaru for a while and then drink a microbrew). I'm gonna the park just looks wrong; if I wanted to affect the particular speech pattern in writing, I would write something like

I'm goin' t' the park.

As others have noted, I would strongly avoid gonna in written communication in general. It isn't much shorter than going to, so it doesn't save you much time to write, and like most contractions, is too casual for use in a business or academic setting.

choster
  • 43,403