Another discussion on how to quote athletes

That is one of the extenuating circumstances where I'd have agree with you. Any other way ruins the entire purpose of the quote.

But "going to" to "gonna" is a different animal, in my book. Gonna, to me, is a way of pronouncing "going to." When people say "gonna," they're reading "going to." Nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

 

yeah, it's a "real" word now. but it was in usage for years before webster's added it. was it any less of a word before they did? were people not actually saying it the day before but, once it was added, suddenly they were?

 

from dictionary.com:

 

I don't use gonna and gotta in my quotes, either. I've never liked them. I change them to "we've go to" or "we're going to ..." because it, in my opinion, looks better.

 

I don't use "gonna" or "gotta," or for that matter, "gitter." And as a general rule, I'll clean up "ain't" to a correct usage. Not trying to drag newspapers into the comics with words like fishin' and golfin' but I think some style guides are naive in treating contractions like less than standard written English.

 

And nobody will ever convince me there's anything wrong with or amateurish about using "gonna" or "gotta." Like it or not, that's the way most people speak. High school athletes, CEOs, janitors, politicians. Listen to anyone speak, and you'll hear "gonna" and "gotta" far more often than "going to" and "got to." And I still don't get how you think "going to" turns into "gonna" by speeding it up or slurring it. What happens to the letter t? I'm not saying it's an official word, but "going to" in no way morphs into "gonna."

Just out of curiosity, if the dictionary recognizes "gonna" and "gotta" as words in a year or two, will you maintain your stance or accept their usage as OK?

 

Hate to dredge up a third-page thread, but this is faulty logic. Sure, most people say gonna and gotta. They also say runnin' and laughin' and b'lieve and what's a matter and whaddaya and 'em. Are you putting all of those -- and many other mispronunciations -- in your quotes, too? The fact is, these are lazy pronunciations of actual words -- not to say I don't like that, too, but that's what they are -- and we should write what people are actually saying. Ain't, to bring up an earlier example, is not a mispronunciation of isn't. And while it wasn't a word (as noted, I believe our buddy Webster has relented), if you wanted to use the quote for color and felt confident it would be understood, you'd go with it regardless. That's is not, however, the same as gonna and gotta.

As far as where the T went in gonna, people drop Ts all the time. There's a town in South Carolina called Clinton, but everyone in the area pronounces in "Clinnon." Would you spell it that way in a quote?

 

Now you'd better speddader before I throw some clont on your zipple.



(Sorry. Couldn't help myself.)

 

Writing up a story the other day, coached finished off a quote about why he changed relievers and said "it was freaking cold out there."
I didn't like using freaking. I don't have a sports editor boss, so I asked the news editor - who has little idea how to lay out a a newspaper and has become a little too full of himself since he got named to the position.
He said just take it out. I told him I can't because it's a quote. He laughed and said he does stuff like that with quotes all the time. I immediately realized my paper has no idea what ethics are and if it wasn't for our section, would be a completely worthless POS

 

I have had this argument before.
I agree with mediaguy, and to not to agree with mediaguy is wrong.
Don't hang anyone out to dry. For those who have, does that make you feel intelligent? Give me a break.
Mediaguy is right on.

 

I'm with da man and SomeGuy 100 percent on all of this. I see no problem with cleaning up gotta, gonna and routinely change "we gotta" or "we got to" to "we've got to." Write what they said, not the way they said it. There are exceptions, such as ain't and fossy's "who'd-a thunk it?" example. But I never use gonna or gotta, unless there's a reason like "You Gotta Believe!" It is tricky, no doubt. I like da man's explanation above, though.

 

I'm gonna (er, going to) revive this thread to ask about "We got." I almost never see "We've got" or "I've got" in copy anymore. It's always "We got" and "I got," which is how it sounds, and really, how people are actually saying it.

I got this.
We got to focus on Saturday, not next week.
You got to think that way if you want to win.

How many people here change those to "I've got" and "We've got" nowadays? I'm guessing not many. And I'm curious to know what SF thinks about this one (I know he'll understand why), but I throw it to the board rather than PM him, because I'm curious about how others handle this one.