Friday, October 7, 2011

Wanna, Gonna Gotta.... Part 1

British English aka Queen’s English is still widely accepted as the purest English. However due to the unquestionable role that the United States of America plays in international affairs and the worldwide popularity of American culture, many typical American English terms have crept into the speaking habits of English speakers across the world.
A lot of such Americanisms are frequently heard in the informal written as well as spoken English e.g. wanna, gonna, gotta, kinda etc.

Wanna is the shortened form of ‘want to’ as in
I want to leave now (I wanna leave now)
I don’t want to lose her (I don’t wanna lose her)
Do you want to come with me? (Do you wanna come with me?) etc.

Wanna can be used with all persons - singular and plural, except third person singular.
I wanna (correct)
We wanna (correct)
You wanna (correct)
They wanna (correct)

But...
He wanna (incorrect)
She wanna (incorrect)
Sam wanna (incorrect)

This is because wanna structurally rhymes only with I want to, you want to, we want to, they want to, but not with he/she/Sam wants to where the final 
's' is too intrusive. However, crazily enough, even this exceptional rule is increasingly ignored by a huge number of speakers across the world, including the Americans!

While using wanna in interrogative sentences (questions), the helping verbs ‘do’ and ‘does’ are often omitted.
e.g. What ~ you wanna do now? (‘do’ omitted)
~ you wanna fight me? (‘Do’ omitted)
~ he wanna get divorce? (‘Does’ omitted)

(to be contd...)

2 comments:

CHHAIL SINGH said...

HELLO! SIR.
HAPPY DEEPAWALI.

Eva said...

nice write up. Although i knew how to use 'wanna', i was not aware about the detailed rules and exceptions.
Thanks.