gonna/wanna/shoulda,coulda,woulda

Just a short post about the use of gonna and wanna. Gonna and wanna are casual forms. Gonna comes from "going to" and wanna comes from "want to". When Americans speak and say "going to" it sounds like "gonna"! The same is true with "wanna". Many foreigners may become familiar with the forms gonna and wanna from American pop songs. However "gonna" and "wanna" should not be used in written English, unless you're writing a very casual note to a friend. They will stick out from the rest of the sentence because of their slang nature. The same is true with the forms "shoulda" (should have), "coulda" (could have) and "woulda" (would have). Note also that although in speaking "should have" sometimes sounds like "should've" it should not be spelled "should of" (people often make this mistake). There is also a (slang) expression in English: "shoulda, coulda, woulda" which one person will say to another to tell them not to regret things (or try to change what they did in the past), because of course "should have", "could have" and "would have" all refer to possible changes to events in the past.