The I’M GONNA Reduction – Rachel’s English

By request, this video goes over the I’m gonna reduction.  Have you ever noticed that Americans will reduce reductions?  I’m gonna can be reduced several different ways, each with a simplified pronunciation.  Learn the different ways to reduce this phrase.

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Video Text:

In this American English pronunciation video, I’m going to answer someone’s question about reducing “I’m gonna”.

Hiroya says that’s he’s noticed people saying, instead of “I’m gonna”, “I’m’onna”. You’re exactly right. We do reduce “I’m gonna,” which is already a reduction of “I am going to,” to “I’muna”. Basically, dropping the G sound. We don’t do it with any other subject except I. Not you, not he, not she, just I. I’muna.

We’ll even reduce it further, dropping the AI diphthong and starting with the M consonant: Muna.

There are certain phrases that are so familiar to us, that we use so often, that we just feel free to reduce them like crazy. This is one of those phrases. “I am going to”, “Muna.” Do you have to do it this way? No. Reducing it to “I’m gonna” is already a great reduction that will smooth out your speech. But if you have good ears and you listen for it, you’ll probably notice Americans doing this, just like Hiroya did.

Let’s practice it: muna, muna. Lips start closed for the M sound, mm. Then I drop the jaw a little bit, everything is relaxed, mu-, mu-. Then you can leave the jaw where it is, dropped a bit, relaxed, and just flap the tongue against the roof of the mouth for the N, muna, then right back down again for the schwa. Muna, muna. I can tell you right now, the thing you probably need to work on the most is making your second syllable ultra short. Muna, uh, uh, uh, muna. It should sound like a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable. Muna. DA-da. Muna.

Let’s look at some example sentences.

Muna see her later.
Muna try that next.
M’be a little late.

Okay, that one I reduced even more. I just said ‘muh’, ‘muh-be’. Muh-be a little late, muh-be, muh-be. Yep, you’ll hear this reduction too.

Muna graduate next year.
Muna check.
Okay, I’m going to just improvise here for a second.
I’m going to try that, I’m going to try that.
I’m going to transfer the files when we’re done.

So we have the reduction “I am going to” to “I’m gonna”, and sometimes, we’ll reduce it even more. I hope this has helped you understand what you hear. Americans can get pretty crazy with their reductions.

If there’s a word or phrase you’d like help pronouncing, please put it in the comments below. Don’t forget to sign up for my mailing list by clicking here or in the description below to keep up with all of my latest videos – it’s free.

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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