Difference

'MythBuster', it is quite clear that you do not know what you are talking about, because your 'corrected' version of my paragraph is by no means gramatically correct! << It SHOULD THEORETICALLY not possible >>. If you don't mind, I'll ignore your crude interventions.

"Growing up"? Oh, you'd know all about that. (Tone of sarcasm).
"Go clean your room" - again gramatically incorrect, but I'm at work now, so I think I'll pass.

There is a difference and it's an important one. I suggest you learn them obth as they are irreplaceable parts of the English tongue. You will never sound truly colloquial unless you can master the use of 'gonna' like a native speaker.

I'm gonna go prepare my QFT lecture now... Enough of this nonsense... English is as it is spoken... Let it live as it sees fit! This is no dictatorship!

'obth'? Perhaps you mean 'both'.
<< like a native speaker >> I am a native speaker, I have always lived in Britain.

<< truly colloquial >> Well, I'm not really sure whether I want to, it seems very disadvantageous to me - besides, 'gonna' is used mostly in America, it is not so common here.

Good luck in your Quantum Field Theory Lecture.

Caspian, you don't seem to listen to others much, so perhaps you're not the best judge of spoken language. :P

It is certainly widely used in Britain, and while more informal, essential for non-native learners in understanding the spoken language. As far as I can tell, the 1952 quote in the OED is from a British source (I trust you will correct me if I am wrong), so it's also been used in Britain for some time.

I'm not disputing this - but it isn't used that commonly here. I have always lived here, and I can assure you that it is not so common. In the film 'Shaun of the Dead' it is used as a joke to mock the yobs - it is used, but not nearly as commonly as in America.

As far as I'm concerned, people should use proper, standard English among foreigners - it would be so ill-bred not to.

Does "proper, standard English" mean overly stiff RP that is leaning towards being almost archaic, does it? I do not see how standard colloquial NAE, of which "gonna" is definitely a part, does not qualify as such, except maybe in your eyes, where it seems that North American English in general likely does not count as "proper, standard English"...

And honestly, speaking about things like being "ill-bred" just because one does not happen to speak overly formal RP all the time sounds like some caricature of 19th century upper-class British thinking as imagined by some overly pretentious and backward-thinking Briton today...

And on that note, Caspian, as you are from the southwest of England, have you acquired some kind of inferiority complex about where you are from and the dialects spoken there such that you have to come to, in reaction, hate basically all varieties of English and their speakers other than rather antiquated and overly formal forms of RP?

I mean Queen's English. It isn't overly stiff, it is standard, and correct - not archaic. 'Standard Colloquial' - no, no no! Standard is not colloquial, they're opposites. Besides, I am not talking about North American English, why would I be? I'm talking about British English.
I didn't say 'overly formal RP all the time'. For a start, it isn't overly formal, it is just right, and secondly I said 'around foreigners'. How does this qualify as all the time? You are twisting my words.
Are you calling me backward-thinking?

>>I mean Queen's English. It isn't overly stiff, it is standard, and correct - not archaic.<<

I'm sorry, but most people, Britons included, haven't spoken like that in quite a while, at least by what you seem to regard as "standard, and correct". Even the Queen herself has toned down things quite a bit since when she was crowned, and as for the princes William and Harry, well, obviously they don't speak "standard, and correct" English in your eyes, do they?

>>'Standard Colloquial' - no, no no! Standard is not colloquial, they're opposites. Besides, I am not talking about North American English, why would I be? I'm talking about British English.<<

I'm sorry, but you do not seem to comprehend the difference between the literary and spoken languages. By "standard colloquial" speech I mean the vastly prevailing speech patterns found in most speech in English today that would normally be regarded in practice as standard by the general population outside the very most formal speech (which tends to approximate more literary patterns). And mind you that these days this does most certainly include things like "gonna" in practice, despite what people like you may think.

You also seem to imply that North American English is inherently non-standard... Good luck at convincing people of that...

>>I didn't say 'overly formal RP all the time'. For a start, it isn't overly formal, it is just right, and secondly I said 'around foreigners'. How does this qualify as all the time? You are twisting my words.<<

You said that in that particular post of yours, but from your other posts you clearly think of things like "gonna" as being generally "incorrect" and "improper" all the time and think that people simply should not speak in a fashion you regard as such in general.

>>Are you calling me backward-thinking?<<

In the sense that you have an awfully 19th-century mentality in this department, yes. You honestly sound as if you were ripped out of Pygmalion (or its derivative My Fair Lady), or at least use such as the basis of your ideas on language standardization, honestly...

I will write an argument in the morning - I have to go now.

<<I'm not disputing this - but it isn't used that commonly here. I have always lived here, and I can assure you that it is not so common. In the film 'Shaun of the Dead' it is used as a joke to mock the yobs - it is used, but not nearly as commonly as in America.>>

I'm from Britain myself, and I use "gonna" in most speech. "going to" sounds overly stilted and formal. Just curious, what is your opinion on pronouncing numbers like "2500"? I pronounce it "twenty-five hundred" in most speech, though in formal speech I'll say "two thousand five hundred". Is "twenty-five hundred" incorrect to you?

"gonna" gets rid of some ambiguity.

"I'm gonna see a movie": "I'm going to see it, but not necessarily right now"

"I'm going to see a movie": "I'm going there right now"

"gonna" is very much a word, and gets rid of otherwise ambiguous sentences.

2500 - I would always say two thousand five hundred, but I don't know whether the other one is incorrect. I think it depends whether you want to make the number sound bigger or not!

Travis, your reply:
I don't know about the princes, but the Queen still speaks correctly. I wouldn't say she has 'toned herself down' at all. Also, the majority isn't always the best. Despite the fact that many people may use certain incorrect words like 'gonna' it does not mean to say that everybody should be forced to speak like this. The whole point of Standard, Queen's English is so that there is a correct spoken standard for the language.

You have completely misunderstood what I wrote about North American English. I have nothing against it, and quite like it - but as I am British, I am not going to judge North American English because I know nothing about it, nor its standard form, so I will stick with talking about the variation of British only - it's not that I consider American English inferior at all.

You may think I am old fashioned if need be, but of course people should speak a standard form of English.

<<Despite the fact that many people may use certain incorrect words like 'gonna' it does not mean to say that everybody should be forced to speak like this.>>

"gonna" isn't incorrect at all, as I've written above, it gets rid of some ambiguity:

"I'm gonna see a movie": "I'm going to see it, but not necessarily right now"

"I'm going to see a movie": "I'm going there right now"

"gonna" is very much a correct word, and gets rid of otherwise ambiguous sentences.

Gonna might be a lazy pronunciation of going to, but it's such a common construction that it was bound to get worn down a bit. Just like Weer, Ime, Heez, Sheez, Weed, Ide, Heed, Thayd, Yool, Heeul, Sheeul, Al, etc

Maybe if it was written go'n'o it'd look more acceptable?