Short spoken forms (Easy)

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary with me Finn…

Catherine

And me Catherine. Today were talking about short forms.

Finn

That's words like gonna, wanna and gotta that we use a lot in spoken English. Lets start

listening to Jason and Yuki talking about their plans for the weekend.

Catherine

And heres a question: Who is meeting on Saturday night? Have a listen.

INSERT

Jason

Whatcha doing at the weekend, Yuki?

Yuki

I dunno. Im gonna meet Lucy on Saturday night.

Jason

Oh, right. Do you wanna come to the cinema in the afternoon?

No, thanks. Ive gotta finish an English essay for Monday morning.

Jason

OK. Lemme know if you change your .

Finn

Well that was Jason and Yuki. We asked you: Whos Yuki meeting on Saturday night?

Catherine

And the is: shes probably going to meet Lucy.

Finn

Thats right. But instead of saying going to, Yuki said gonna. probably gonna

meet Lucy.

Catherine

Yes, and thats what were looking at in this programme. English speakers often say

words going to very fast  � and it sounds like gonna. They usually do this in informal

situations when talking to friends.

Finn

So does that mean that you shouldnt say gonna when you need to speak carefully

politely, like in a job interview?

Catherine

Well, not necessarily. If gonna comes out naturally, its probably ok. But job interview is

formal, so its probably a bit more polite to say going to. And you dont usually gonna

in writing, unless youre actually writing down a dialogue.

Finn

In fact some people never use it, even . Although its probably more common in

American English.

Catherine

That's right. And one other thing about gonna is that only use it to replace going to

when its followed by a verb.

Finn

That's true. If you say: going to Paris, you cant use gonna to say: Im gonna Paris.

Youd have to add a verb, like , and say: Im gonna go to Paris.

Catherine

I'm gonna go to Paris. Lets have another clip with some short spoken forms.

INSERT CLIP 1

Jason

Whatcha doing at the weekend, Yuki?

Yuki

I dunno. Im probably gonna Lucy on Saturday night.

Finn

So Jason said whatcha. Whatcha. Thats a short form of what are you. Or

what do you.

Catherine

And Yuki said I dunno. I dunno. Thats a short spoken form of I dont .

Finn

Lets have another clip. See if you can spot any more.

INSERT CLIP 2

Jason

Oh, right. Do wanna come to the cinema in the afternoon?

Yuki

No, thanks. Ive gotta finish an English essay for Monday .

Catherine

Did you get them? We heard wanna. Thats a short form of want to. Do you wanna

come the cinema in the afternoon?

Finn

And there was also gotta. Gotta. Ive gotta finish an English essay. Here, is

short for got to. But gotta can also be short for the possessive got a, like in Ive

new mobile.

Catherine

And now for the last clip.

INSERT CLIP 3

Lemme know if you change your mind.

Can you guess what lemme is short for? Its let me. Let me know if you change your

mind.

Yes. And there are others like hafta, hafta, for have to or gimme, that's gimme, for

give me.

Finn

what about kinda, kinda, for kind of? Like Shes kinda nice.

IDENT

6 Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English

And were talking about spoken short forms. So Catherine, whatcha gonna do in the quiz?

Catherine

Quiz question number : whats a more informal way to say Ive got to phone the

bank?

Finn

Its Ive gotta phone the .

Catherine

Good. And number two: you want to know what your friend is doing tonight. How can you

ask , using a spoken short form?

Finn

You can say: whatcha doing tonight?

Catherine

And number three: you think its to rain. Tell your friend using a spoken short form.

Finn

You could say: I think its gonna rain.

And thats the end of the quiz. Well done if you got them all right. Now before we go,

a vocabulary tip. Try to watch TV, movies and video clips regularly in English. Listen

out for short spoken and practise repeating them. It will help you to understand

better when you listen and sound more natural when speak.

Finn

Theres more about this at bbclearningenglishcom.. Weve gotta go now, but do join us

again for more Minute Vocabulary.

Both

Bye!