this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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it's AAVE, not made up, and there's literally no reason why "gonna" should be more legit. it's the exact same construction.
None of those words will make me like it.
I mean it's as made up as any other slang
why do i never hear someone bitch about "gonna" then
"All slang is made up" and "a lot of people are racist (or at the very least ignorant)" are not mutually exclusive statements. Finna is equally as "made up" as gonna or even skibbity.
i know but my point is that this is pointless pedantry.
True, I just suppose I feel saying a word is or isn't made up doesn't really mean anything, versus saying a word is actually actively used and understood by a group of people.
You're not old enough. Teachers bitched about 'gonna' when I was a kid, it's old hat now.
you got me there; i was born a century too late in the 1900s.
Because "gonna" is centuries old, while "finna" only started getting popular around 2010.
Not exactly an apples to apples comparison, 'younger' slang is always going to be less 'familiar'/'normal'-sounding.
“Going to” is far superior to “fixing to,” so I don’t know what you are talking about.
They don't really mean the exact same thing, or at least not in my dialect. "Fixing to" implies that the thing will happen imminently, not just in the future.
Fair enough. I do think that connotation doesn’t necessarily carry over to the “gonna” and “finna” forms, but it’s a good point.
That said, “fixing to” still grates on my brain in ways I can’t begin to describe.
Why do you think it's superior?
That’s a fair question. My most honest answer isn’t a very good one: I can’t stand it.
Linguistically, I don’t get it. “Fixing to” doesn’t seem to offer any benefit over “about to” or “going to” and as far as I can tell it doesn’t have any logical meaning at all.
So, just for clarification, you're ok with "boutta"?
but that's not how language works. if you're gonna dissect parts of phrases like this, "about to" makes even less sense.