Imma

//ˈaɪmə// contraction, slang

contraction, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Contraction
  1. 1
    Contraction of I'm + gonna. US, abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, contraction

    "so Imma say 6 or 7, cool"

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of Imma. alt-of, contraction

    ""So I'm like, if you guys don't want to pay attention to me, then imma make you pay attention to me.""

Example

More examples

"Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!"

Etymology

Written form of a relaxed pronunciation of I'm gonna. Includes a reduction of /mn/ to /m/ (see reduction of /mb/ and /mn/ on Wikipedia). Common in and possibly originated in African-American Vernacular English, but is used more broadly today. According to m'Cheaux, it originated in Gullah, where "a-" replaces "-ing" and indicates immediate future tense.

Related phrases

going to

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.