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"gonna" in English | ||
Tags: Colloquial Language | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6391 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 9 of 21 16 August 2015 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
I see "Imma" a lot in informal written English. But I once had "alright" corrected to "all right" in high school :D Edited by Serpent on 16 August 2015 at 12:20am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kimchizzle Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3213 days ago 24 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 10 of 21 30 August 2015 at 6:51am | IP Logged | ||
This is not entirely true. They are very often used in writing in text messsages and social media like facebook, twitter, reddit by native English speakers. But yes, in a classroom writing assignment, formal letter, resume, etc, they shouldn't be used in writing. On facebook and twitter and sms, almost anything goes in terms of informality, it's ok to write something like. ", Aight dude, but I gotta b back home befo 9 or Ash gonna b mad." Or, "Lol, Y dey always gotta do dis dumb shizz." This is just super informal writing and may look stupid and uneducated to some people but it is actually used by native English speakers, even among highly educated ones who grew up talking a very informal English with close friends and using formal English in class and with strangers. Most people who use informal writing don't write in such an extreme example of informal writing, but in varying degrees. Things like, imma, gonna, gotta, whatcha/what ya, shoulda, are all very common in informal writing. Edited by Kimchizzle on 30 August 2015 at 7:14am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 11 of 21 30 August 2015 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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My advice is to non-native English speakers. Don't write like that. You may want to be able to understand that sort of thing, but that is different than writing it yourself. I really do not think it is a good idea to tell non-English speakers that writing like that is ok.
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| Kimchizzle Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3213 days ago 24 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 21 30 August 2015 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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But it is ok to do it on a text message
between friends or on social media posts where most people who read what you write are friends of yours. As long as a person understands where informal writing is acceptable, and where formal writing is accepted. I often write in informal ways in French, my second language, when chatting with French friends I know. Salut mec, sava? Keske tu fais auj? J'regarde kek chose sur la télé. I have people who chat back like this to me and who taught me about this types of informal French, and also French friends who use an informal French on Facebook. Why shouldn't I write like this just because I'm not a native? Of course, I know better than to use this informal French writing in a formal situation or to people I don't know or a lot older than me. The same thing applies to non-natives learning English, if they have friends who are English-speaking natives that chat informally like this, what harm is it to inmitate the style back? Again like I said there are different levels of informality, and words like gonna, gotta, whatcha, shoulda, imma are very common and used by lots of natives. I would use those words even to write a messsge to my parents and they wouldn't think its strange. Hey mom, whatcha doin? Wanna meet up and get somethin to eat later? I wouldn't write the words with my grandparents though because they might have trouble understanding. Super informal writing I use only with friends. But even the common words, gonna, gotta, etc should never be used in formal writing. Edited by Kimchizzle on 30 August 2015 at 8:58pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3336 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 13 of 21 31 August 2015 at 12:44am | IP Logged | ||
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As a native speaker I've seen such abbreviations but never understood the point of them. Let's take a simple example like this sentence:
I don't know. If you listen carefully to the rendering of this sentence, it is almost never spoken with all distinct sounds and words "I - DON ' T - KNOW". So, the logic might have gone, "I know, let me write it 'like it sounds'!" I dunno. Ok... by looking at this "informal version" you can sort of see that it makes sense in some way. That is, it sort of conveys what people sound like when they say "I don't know" but I see two problems with actually writing it like this: 1. The sort of sound transformation that happens in a sentence like "I don't know" -> "I dunno" happens systematically and in many places other than this example. Outside of a handful of examples like "I dunno" which have become popular, English is simply not written how it sounds. That's just a fact that you have to live with. Besides, if you wanted to be really accurate with sounds why not just use the IPA (ever tried to read a dialogue written in IPA)? 2. The second version just looks lame. The problem has to do with the way you're writing it, not with the actual way it sounds. That is, when someone actually answers a question and you actually hear him say "I dunno" (i.e. he says "I don't know" but you think it sounded like "I dunno"), then this is a totally normal utterance and no one would have any problem with that. But when someone makes the conscious decision to render this utterance as "I dunno" then personally I think it is just lame, mainly for reason #1 pointed out above. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kimchizzle Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3213 days ago 24 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 14 of 21 31 August 2015 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Well this type of informal writing is used mostly by people under 30 on their facebook or in text messages or chat. If a person didn't grow up being exposed to lots of this type of informal writing it is very likely they won't "get it." As in they just won't understand the purpose. For instance, my parents would understand it, but they wouldn't use it much among their friends. Whereas I'll use gonna, whatcha, could ya, etc. in almost any informal environment, facebook, text message, etc, where I'm mostly talking with my friends and other people my age who "get" this type of writing.
Also there are many levels of informality and I primarily stick with the most well known and common words, except for close friends. Also in tons of English song lyrics, there is this type of informal writing, from rock, to country, to rap. If any non-native speaker has native English speaking friends who use these informal writing styles then the non-native could be very good at this type of writing if the non-native was interested in learning from the native speakers. Of course, if a non-native speaker doesn't want to learn informal writing, they don't have to. It is their choice. By the way, I dunno is not commonplace and would be considered relatively old-fashioned by most people who write informally under age 30. I dunno, is something that Homer Simpson would say. But I seldom see it written. But wanna, gonna, coulda, woulda, shouda, needa, whatcha, ya replacing you, dropping g from ing words, are extremely common, and used all the time. Edited by Kimchizzle on 31 August 2015 at 5:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 15 of 21 31 August 2015 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you want to be perceived as educated and serious about your academic and/or professional endeavors you should not ever write that way. You may want to be able to read/understand that sort of writing, but there is no reason to write that way. You simply never know when someone reads your English and makes a judgment about your education or level of seriousness. You never know how much it can impact how people perceive you. It is a bad habit and there is no point to it.
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| Kimchizzle Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3213 days ago 24 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 16 of 21 31 August 2015 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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You are being entirely pedantic about this issue. I would't use this type of writing, say on
this forum except to explain something. But in text messages and Facebook, I use primarily informal writing, and why shoudn't I? I'm primarily writing things to friends or people of a similar age. Informal writing styles are most common among people less than 30 and used to write with frinds or people their own age or younger. If I am writing to a friend informally, they are never going to consider going to consider me undereducated because they know my academic background. It is acceptable to write informally to other peers of your age group or younger as well if you are 30 or youunger because the majority of these people will write informally as well with their friends. Now, if someone of my parent's generation who are in their early 50's or older people tried to use informal writing, then anyone that actually uses it regularly will recognize immediately that my parents didn't use it properly and it is very likely that their age could be guessed by their misuse of informal words. So that said, there is an age gap between the people who use informal writing often and those that don't, this age gap is starting to shift forward as the 20-somethings using informal writing on social media turn into 30-somethings. That is because this age gap is in my opinion due to people under 30 growing up in a culture with lots of exposure to social media and cell phone text messaging thus facilitating a use for informal writing to be used on a daily basis, whereas my parent's generation didn't have much use for informal writing because they did not grow up in a culture where text messaging and social media existed. Another area of the age gap is that informal writing has an abundance of new slang words that my people of my parent's generation would have no idea their meanings, off the chain, poppin', bangin', ish, below etc. without using a slang dictionary but the majority of people under 30 would know. Lastly, writing informally on social media has nothing to do with education or lack thereof. I know many people of my generation (late 20's) with Master's degrees and even someone working to get into a PhD program who use informal writing in text messages and on their social media. The only difference between those that use informal writing and those that don't is a difference of culture, those that use informal writing grew up in a culture that facillited exposure to it, and those that don't write informally did not grow up in that type of culture. There is a use for informal writing and it is used everyday by native speakers who fit the criteria I've described and on the platforms mentioned. If a non-native speaker fits within that criteria as well and wants to learn informal writing, they could do it by finding native speakers that are willing to teach them. Also I find it very rude that you would speak with such authority that non-native speakers should not make their own decisions in this matter, more so considering you did not grow up as a teen and 20-something in a culture where this type of writing style was commonplace. Also, there is a clear misunderstanding and misconception of the uses and purpose of informal writing, along with a general ignorance of the culture of those who write informally on a daily basis. The choice of what topic to learn and interests the student of English should be that of only the non-native English speaker, not that of the native speaker who wants to impose their own personal culture and particular usage of English onto the non-native. The decision should belong to the non-native learner. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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