gonna
GUN-uh/ˈɡʌnə/UKGON-uh/ˈɡɒnə/
- 1A relaxed spoken contraction of 'going to' before a verb, used to talk about the future: what someone intends to do or what is expected to happen.
She told me she's gonna quit her job next month.
They're gonna repaint the whole house before winter sets in.
Note
Spelling here follows speech: going to, said quickly, with the old habit of sounding -ing as n, and the written form dates to at least 1913. Casual speech and lyrics may drop the auxiliary, as in the title of Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up"; formal prose usually keeps going to, outside dialogue.
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Origin
A contraction of "going to," recorded since 1913. It reflects the long-standing habit of pronouncing present participles with an "n" sound rather than "ng" (so-called g-dropping).
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Gonna is a contraction of going to. en.wiktionary.org
- Gonna is recorded since 1913. en.wiktionary.org
- The n pronunciation of present-participle endings, called g-dropping, has a long history. en.wikipedia.org