Short spoken forms
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Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary with me, Finn. And me, Catherine. And today we're talking about short spoken forms. That's words like 'gonna', 'wanna' and 'gotta' that we use a lot in spoken English.

Let's start by listening to Jason and Yuki talking about their plans for the weekend. And here's a question. Who is Yuki meeting on Saturday night? Have a listen. What are you doing this weekend, Yuki? I don't know. I'm probably going to meet Lucy on Saturday night. Oh, right. Do you want to come to the cinema in the afternoon? No, thanks. I've got to finish an English essay for Monday morning. OK.

Let me know if you change your mind. Well, that was Jason and Yuki. We asked you, who's Yuki meeting on Saturday night? And the answer is she's probably going to meet Lucy. That's right. But instead of saying going to, Yuki said gonna. She's probably gonna meet Lucy. Yes, and that's what we're looking at in this programme –

English speakers often say the words going to very fast and it sounds like gonna, gonna.

They usually do this in informal situations when they're talking to friends. So, does that mean that you shouldn't say gonna when you need to speak carefully and politely, like in a job interview? Well, not necessarily. If gonna comes out naturally, it's probably OK. But a job interview is formal, so it's probably a bit more polite to say going to. And you don't usually use gonna in

in writing unless you're actually writing down a dialogue. In fact, some people never use it, even informally, although it's probably more common in American English. That's right. And one other thing about 'gonna' is that we only use it to replace 'going to' when 'going to' is followed by a verb. That's true. If you say 'I'm going to Paris', you can't use 'gonna' to say

I'm gonna Paris. You'd have to add a verb like this and say, I'm gonna go to Paris. I'm gonna go to Paris. And now let's have another clip with some more short spoken forms. What are you doing this weekend, Yuki? I don't know. I'm probably gonna meet Lucy on Saturday night. So Jason said, watcha, watcha.

That's a short form of what are you? Or sometimes, what do you? And Yuki said, I dunno. I dunno. That's a short spoken form of I don't know. Let's have another clip. See if you can spot any more. Oh, right. Do you want to come to the cinema in the afternoon? No, thanks. I've got to finish an English essay for Monday morning. Did you get them? We heard wanna…

'Wanna' – that's a short form of 'want to'. Do you wanna come to the cinema in the afternoon? And there was also 'gotta' – 'gotta'. I've gotta finish an English essay. Here, 'gotta' is short for 'got to'. But 'gotta' can also be short for the possessive 'got a', like in 'I've got a new mobile'. And now for the last clip. Let me know if you change your mind.

Can you guess what lemmy is short for? It's let me. Let me know if you change your mind. Yes, and there are others like hafta for have to or gimme, that's gimme for give me. Now what about kinda, kinda for kind of. She's kinda nice.

And we're talking about spoken short forms. So, Catherine, whatcha gonna do in the quiz? Quiz question number one. What's a more informal way to say, I've got to phone the bank?

It's... I've got to phone the bank. And number two. You want to know what your friend is doing tonight. How can you ask them using a spoken short form? You can say... Good. And number three. You think it's going to rain. Tell your friend using a spoken short form. You could say...

I think it's going to rain. You could. And that's the end of the quiz. Well done if you got them all right. Now, before we go, here's a vocabulary tip. Try to watch TV, movies and video clips regularly in English.

Listen out for spoken short forms and practise repeating them. It'll help you to understand better when you listen and sound more natural when you speak. There's more about this at bbclearningenglish.com. We've got to go now, but do join us again for more 6 Minute Vocabulary. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Learning English Vocabulary.

Did you know we have a BBC Learning English email newsletter? Subscribe for our latest lessons, worksheets and quizzes and weekly tips to help you study. Just search BBC Learning English newsletter or follow the link in the notes for this programme. Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by.

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