Short spoken forms

Short spoken forms

From 6 Minute Vocabulary by BBC

March 30, 2026 · 8 min

About this episode

This episode explores the use and significance of short spoken forms in English, such as 'gonna' and 'wanna'.

Gonna, wanna, dunno, whatcha… are these really English words? Who uses them and why? FIND BBC LEARNING ENGLISH HERE: Visit our website ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish Follow us ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/followus SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/newsletters LIKE PODCASTS? Try some of our other popular podcasts including: ✔️ Learning English for Work ✔️ Learning English from the News ✔️ Learning English Stories They're all available by searching in your podcast app.

Topics covered

  • spoken forms
  • English language
  • informal language
  • communication
  • language learning

Keywords

  • gonna
  • wanna
  • dunno
  • whatcha
  • informal English
  • language usage
  • spoken English

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BBC, BBC LEARNING ENGLISH

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