" wanna ", " gotta "

Many native speakers claim that they never or rarely use such forms. Linguists recording them can easily verify that effectively all of them do, in fact, use such forms frequently. That said, if you sound obviously non-native, then nobody is going to expect you to say "gotta" or "wanna"; it might even stick out as funny if you did. If you have a very natural / native-sounding accent, then you're almost certainly going to be saying "gotta" or "wanna" with some frequency anyway. It tends to happen "automatically" in rapid or uncareful speech.

That's barely different from never saying "can't" or "won't" or "shouldn't've"

Just don't. Use "going to", "want to", etc.

Just don't. Use "going to", "want to", etc.

My mother is American and she would never say these. It's totally ok. Eventually you might find yourself using them.

You’d sound non-native to most tbh

I never use these in my dialect but if you're learning American style English it would be a little out of place but not terribly. People would probably be able to tell that you are a second language speaker and not be confused.

Will you always be understood? Yes. Could some people think you sound very formal? Also yes.

No, you will not. But, you shouldn’t think of these expressions as ‘gotta’ and ‘wanna’. When native speakers say “I want to go’ - /aɪwɒnə'gəʊ/ They are not saying some separate, district expression ‘wanna’. They are saying “I want to” and the expression sounds like ‘wanna’ because of the features of connected speech in a stress-timed language. So, you should say “I want to go.” But as your speaking becomes more practiced and closer approximates what native speakers say, you will say ‘/wɒnə'gəʊ/‘. Gotta and wanna shouldn’t be written. They don’t exist as separate ‘orthographs’ in native speakers minds - just nodes in the network, connected to have got to / want to, indicating non-standard / informal spelling.

Yes it is abnormal to never ever use contractions

No, but you'll sound more formal, maybe like someone from an older generation. Dont stress it, they might come to you naturally in the future if you keep practicing too

"Wanna" and "gotta" are just merged forms of "want to" and "got to". They're just merged for simplicity and casualness' sake. Though realistically speaking, no one's gonna bat an eye if you don't use those words, they're totally optional.

these kinds of questions confuse me a bit bc when I'm speaking, my brain thinks I'm saying "want to," but if I'm speaking quickly and informally, it just comes out "wanna" naturally. it's rare that I'm actually thinking "I should say wanna, not want to."

No . There's no need to say them

As your speaking becomes more practiced, it will sound more native. “Gotta” and “wanna” are part of native speech. In some cases, as you practice more, you’ll almost have to over-enunciate to avoid those words. You don’t want to sound like you’re giving a speech every time you talk, right?

If you replace them with "(have) got to" and "want to" in casual speech, then yes, you will sound abnormal. However, you can avoid these and similar forms by simply using different words. I personally would never use "gotta" unless for some sort of quaint affectation. "I need to..." and "I'd like to" would be good replacements that don't pollute your tongue with that nasty taste. I will say that contractions (proper ones, with apostrophes) are essential for sounding native or comfortable. However, you can easily keep your speech above things like "gotta" and \*shudder\* "finna" by simply choosing your words carefully (but don't fail to contract normal things like "he's" and "we're" and "wasn't").

Sidebar, while we're on it: "gotta" means "got to" means "must." "Gotta" and "got a" are different. The Black Eyed Peas have a song called "I Gotta Feeling", and that is wrong. They must feeling? that is all

No, but it isn't something people necessarily do deliberately. It is just when speaking quickly how "want to" renders. It sounds wrong to me when people use it in emphasis, like "I don't WANNA go" as it is childlike in a way. But "I gotta go real quick" is just got to said rapidly.

Going off your flair, I'd say it's perfectly normal for someone at your stage of language learning to not use those words. Those types of words are important if you want to sound more casual and natural in informal settings, but they're not worth stressing over if you're still a beginner. As long as you understand those words, you don't need to start using them until you're more comfortable with the language.

There’s a nice video on this somewhere. But it turns out that contraction are part of normal fluent speech (like weak forms) and failing to use them makes you sound non-native and less fluent. But as a beginner? Just recognize them.

No. I am a native English speaker and I never say or write "gotta", "wanna", "kinda", etc. because I have a basic respect for the language I'm speaking. I'm also one of those people who sends text messages with proper spelling and punctuation.

It will be seen as you learned professional English and prefer it; if that's what u are going for then cool

I have never used those expressions and I do not regard myself as unusual at all. For me, they are "pop music words" - you come across them in the lyrics of songs but I dont see them as part of normal speech or writing. However, that is speaking as a middle-aged Brit. I am pretty sure that in the US these words are used more frequently.

obviously it's informal, use them all the time myself. woulda, shoulda, coulda

No. BUT, you'll hear the contracted forms much more often than "got to" or "want to". Even in formal situations, people usually only say them separately if they're putting emphasis on the phrase. Even world leaders and bosses use the contracted forms when addressing people. Nobody will think it's strange if you don't though. As long as you're not stressing it out of context.

Saying ‘want to’ is very awkward when speaking at a faster pace, which is why it gets merged into wanna. Not all English does this, an accent with a slower pace will definitely preserve those hard T sounds.

The examples you gave are rather informal. You would be fine not using them in a formal setting, but in an informal setting, you might sound a bit robotic. Some other contractions are expected even in formal settings, though. For example, you should almost always say "I'm" and not "I am", in any setting.

Don't forget finna, tryna, and gonna!

You won’t appear abnormal at all, you just might have a hard time speaking casually. Almost every English speaker alternates between got to/gotta, want to/wanna, going to/gonna, etc. And only using the full forms will make you sound kind of formal.

You'll be understood fine but people will guess you are foreign as you will sound rather formal. Don't worry about it as a beginner. My in-laws (French) do the same thing as they were only taught a very formal sort of English at school, a long time ago, and we manage to have conversations just fine. It will come to you naturally as you speak more to natives.

In a business setting, completely normal, but speaking casually? Some people would notice, and you'd probably come off as very formal.

Not abnormal exactly, but if someone hears you speak a lot and you never use words like that then they might think you speak quite formally. Especially with words like 'gotta', that generally get used coz when speaking casually some phrases just become a bit mixed together. For example with 'gotta', that usually comes from someone saying 'got to' a bit fast, or they're not being careful to enunciate each word, which happens when people are just talking casually with friends. Like the sentence 'I've gotta go' sounds a lot more casual and relaxed than 'I've got to go'

You've gotta wanna do it