Am I the only one who is irritated by the present habit of saying “gonna” instead of “going to”? I hear it not just in casual conversations, but also in formal presentations by people who should know better. It even shows up in print; almost everyday I encounter one or two examples in the local newspaper’s stories or columnists. Or am I just being too picky?
Maybe they do?
Not that your peeve isn’t valid, but here’s something to chew on. Have you ever heard someone use gonna in sentences like “I’m going to the office”? Probably not, it’s usually enunciated there. You only find gonna in sentences like “I’m going to work on this report.” There’s a rule that allows gonna in certain constructions and not in others (although damned if I’m gonna formalize it when I should be working). It may not be that it’s lazy so much as those who use it have subconsciously found it a useful replacement.
I’m gonna have to admit… GUILTY AS CHARGED.
Sorry.
I think it depends on if the next word is a verb.
I was just fixing to open a thread about this.
I suppose you could state it that simply, if you really wanted to. 
I just figgered that saying “gonna” was a step up from saying “fixin’ to”.
Meh. Language changes. Why get pissy about that?
I’ll use it on here as a type of slang in certain non-formal posts:
“Britney Spears lay low from the limelight? She just ain’t gonna do it.”
But in more serious or formal posts or real life e-mails I don’t use it:
“If your asking the engineers to take over the techs responsibility of monitoring the fill stations they aren’t going to do it.”
Or worse, I’m guilty of “finnda”.
I blame monkeys for this habit. They obviously started it.
Cite? Did you ask for a cite?
I’ll give you a cite!
You know my girl just called me up
And she woke me from my sleep
You should have heard the things she said
You know she hurt my feelings deep.
I’m gonna buy me a dog [A dog, a dog! Why?]
'Cause I need a friend now. [Say, you need all the friends you can get]
I’m **gonna ** buy me a dog,
My girl, my girl, don’t love me no how.
Yep, it was those darn Monkeys.
Jim
But without “gonna”, What the heck is “I’m’a” supposed to be a contraction of?
I’m’a think about this for a while…
I’m perfectly capable of speaking and writing proper English, and usually do. But in a less formal context, I deliberately add a few colloquialisms. And I ain’t gonna stop.
1957 called, and they want their linguistic peeves back.
I say that too. (Colloquially, of course.) It’s clearly a contraction of “I’m gonna”. Or “I’m fixin’ to”, if that floats your boat on a higher tide.
I use it in informal speech, and sometimes informal writing - but I can’t imagine writing it in something work- related.
I gotta stop doing that.
But I was an English major. When I butcher the language, it’s art. When other people do it, it’s wrong.
I worked in marketing for a satellite campus of a major university. We were given the opportunity at pre-screening the university’s big commercial for our specific campus. We were all pretty surprised that the opening began with a voice over of, “This is where I wanna learn.” They even inflected the “wanna.” Yikes! I know it’s kind of a common way of speaking in the area, but for the promotional campaign of higher education?
I’m guilty of *gonna *and dunno. I’m sure many other heresies as well. Such things use to bother me more, but as I age I find other things to worry about. One girl I use to know would say 'member? and for some reason it made me nuts. Now I let such things pass.