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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Contraction confusion
Hi there, I'm currently a little (extremely) confused about a sentence I'm trying to edit in a short story.
The sentence is a really short quoted phrase that uses a colloquial word.
"Nothin's wrong."
By which I mean, formally, "Nothing is wrong."
Except isn't Nothing shortened to Nothin'? And to make a contraction with is, don't I have to add on 's?
Which would then make it, "Nothin''s wrong." With two apostrophes!
Can I leave what I have? Would that make it formally be, "Nothin is wrong"? Which is clearly in need of an apostrophe (or two?).
Help!
Google was useless and my family stared at me like I was insane...I really hope I've explained my dilemma enough for another human being to understand.
Thanks, Danii.
The sentence is a really short quoted phrase that uses a colloquial word.
"Nothin's wrong."
By which I mean, formally, "Nothing is wrong."
Except isn't Nothing shortened to Nothin'? And to make a contraction with is, don't I have to add on 's?
Which would then make it, "Nothin''s wrong." With two apostrophes!
Can I leave what I have? Would that make it formally be, "Nothin is wrong"? Which is clearly in need of an apostrophe (or two?).
Help!
Google was useless and my family stared at me like I was insane...I really hope I've explained my dilemma enough for another human being to understand.
Thanks, Danii.
Top answer
Hi, Here's how I see it. Nothing is wrong is fine. Nothing's wrong is fine.
- Hi, Here's how I see it.
- Nothing is wrong is fine.
- Nothing's wrong is fine.
- Nothin''s wrong just looks foolish.
- Nothin is wrong just looks like a spelling error.
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2 Answers
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Hi,
Here's how I see it.
Nothing is wrong is fine.
Nothing's wrong is fine.
Nothin''s wrong just looks foolish.
Nothin is
Here's how I see it.
Nothing is wrong is fine.
Nothing's wrong is fine.
Nothin''s wrong just looks foolish.
Nothin is
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(Danii again)
Thank you so much for answering this.
The character saying the quote is from an isolated country town in Australia, so I guess it is a form of dialect (which I've included on purpose to contrast the speech of other characters).
I decided to give up on that sentence and go with, "There's nothin' wrong."
Thanks once again, I really appreciate it.
xxDanii.
Thank you so much for answering this.
The character saying the quote is from an isolated country town in Australia, so I guess it is a form of dialect (which I've included on purpose to contrast the speech of other characters).
I decided to give up on that sentence and go with, "There's nothin' wrong."
Thanks once again, I really appreciate it.
xxDanii.
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