finna

Finna means “about to” or “going to,” as in “I’m finna eat.” It comes from “fixing to,” a phrase with deep roots in the American South.

What finna means

Merriam-Webster defines it as “about to” or “intending to,” used in place of “fixing to.” It’s about the very near future. “I’m finna leave” means you’re heading out right now, not sometime next week. Dictionary.com points out that this makes it closer to “bouta” (about to) than to “gonna.”

Examples

• “I’m finna take a nap, wake me up at 5.”
• “They finna cancel the game if it keeps raining.”
• “You finna eat all those fries by yourself?”

Where finna came from

“Fixing to,” meaning getting ready to do something, has a long history in Southern American English. Finna is the shortened form that grew up in African American English. Merriam-Webster gives a first known use of 1985, and Dictionary.com says it was turning up in recorded hip-hop by the late 1980s. Lexicographer Grant Barrett has written that he saw it in print as early as 1993.

Linguists have also floated other sources. On the Language Log blog, Mark Liberman suggested “fitting to” might have played a part, though “fixing to” remains the standard explanation.

Spellings and usage

You’ll see fitna, finta and fixna too. Finna is informal, but it isn’t a mistake. Dictionary.com stresses that it’s a genuine feature of African American English with its own grammar, and notes that outsiders using it to sound cool or funny can come across as patronizing.

Related terms

• Bet: OK, deal.
• Deadass: seriously.
• Low-key: quietly, a little.
• Cook: to do something impressively.

See more terms like this in our Gen Z slang guide.