Contractions again (I am sorry)

Question

0 I took a look through the archives and the Apostophe thread and didn't really see what I am looking for so I aplogize in advance if this has been covered. 02br02br00I work in an advertising firm and today someone submitted an ad to me which said: "Come on over the water's fine."02br02br00While this "seems" to follow the rules of: using the apostrophe as the missing letter for clarity, my instinct tells me that there is something wrong here.02br02br00Can I really make a contraction out of any word that I please?02br02br00My shirt's dirty. [shirt is]02br00Your lunch's nasty. [lunch is]02br00That dog's eating something gross. [dog is]02br02br00It just doesn't look correct, but after our office argument about the correct use of an apostrophe for a contraction I thought I might just look for the answer from a pro.02br02br00Great site.02br02br00Thanks0-

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

0"the water's fine" is fine - but the sentence does need some other punctuation. 02br
02br
00Come on over! The water's fine! or02br
02br
00Come on over - the water's fine! or02br
02br
00Something to separate the first part from the second part.02br
02br
00The noun+is contraction to noun's is very common in speech and in informal written communications.0-

Kooyeen · Answer

0 Hi,02br
00interesting question. I recently started to wonder if "Mike's here" was ok instead of "Mike is here." I mean, maybe not in written English, but I was even unsure about spoken English. Then I decided to take a look at my book on pronunciation, and I found something like:02br
01u00The dog'll've eaten 'em.02u02br
00So I thought, oh well, I think I shouldn't be afraid of contracting a simple "s". 050010id1

Old Man Gordon · Answer

0In the three example sentences, I don't like the second one.  I wouldn't've contracted lunch's.  I'm not sure why...maybe the possessive changes my feeling, as does the difficulty of the 'chs' pronunciation.  I also wouldn't contract 'Breakfast' or 'brunch', but I would contract "Your dinner's nasty." and "Your snack's nasty."0-

Yankee · Answer

0 Yup, we contract lots of words in spoken English. 02br
00- That'll be the day. 02br
00- He wouldn't've come if it'd been snowing. 05002br
00- What'd you've done?02br
00- When'd you see 'im?02br
02br
00But we don't actually write all of the contractions we use when we speak. There're only a few that are commonly written.02br
02br
00A feeling of "spoken English" is exactly what the advertisement is trying to achieve -- it should sound like a spoken invitation because that sounds warmer and more personal than a formal written invitation.010id1

Kooyeen · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Old Man Gordon12cite10 I would contract "Your dinner's nasty." and "Your snack's nasty."12blockquote

10Well, for example, I don't like "Your snack's nasty", but I would say "Your dinner's ready". That's like "Mike's here". I'm not sure the contraction "s" sounds good after a voiceless sound, because it'd be pronounced as an "s" sound (Mike's here, your snack's nasty). On the other hand, I like "s" after voiced sounds, it sounds like "z" and I'm more likely to contract it (Your dinner's ready).02br
00Go figure 050010id1

Yankee · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Kooyeen12cite10Well, for example, I don't like "Your snack's nasty", 11font10(I do.)12font10 but I would say "Your dinner's ready". 11font10(Me too.)12font10 That's like "Mike's here". 11font10(Sounds fine to me.)12font10I'm not sure the contraction "s" sounds good after a voiceless sound, because it'd ([15010]) be pronounced as an "s" sound11font10(The 's' sound is good. You don't have any trouble with "it's", do you?)12font10 (Mike's here, your snack's nasty). On the other hand, I like "s" after voiced sounds, it sounds like "z" and I'm more likely to contract it (Your dinner's ready).12br
10Go figure 15112br
12blockquote

10Contracting a noun with 'is' basically ends up sounding the same as the plural form of the noun. Trying to contract 'is' and a noun such bus, watch, lash, box, etc.(i.e. you add 'es' to form the plural) would also end up sounding like the plural. So, trying to say "The watch's broken" would only end up sounding like you were saying "The watch is broken."010id111id1

Bokeh · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Grammar Geek12cite10Something to separate the first part from the second part.12br
12blockquote

10Not for an advert. Adverts very rarely take any punctuation whatsoever so their wording needs to take this into consideration and not be ambiguous in such a way that would call for it.0-

BarbaraPA · Answer

0Bokeh, I completely disagree with "adverts very rarely take any punctuation whatsover." 02br
02br
00Go open the closest magazine and tell me what you see. 02br
02br
00I have been involved in the creating of paid advertisements and I assure you, they had punctuation. Perhaps Nona would like to chime in, since this is part of her business as well.0-

CalifJim · Answer

0 I agree that it's useless to add apostrophe-s to indicate 01i00is02i00 when the word ends in a sibilant (i.e., would take 01i00-es02i00 to form a plural). In these cases the apostrophe-s looks very strange, and nothing is gained where pronunciation is concerned. But in all other cases (01u00regardless02u00 of whether they end in a voiced or unvoiced sound), the apostrophe-s for 01i00is02i00 is fine. (Go figure!)02br
02br
01i00*My watch's slow.02br
00 My watch is slow.02br
00 Dinner's ready.02br
00 Mike's here.02i02br
02br
00 My observation is that learners find these nearly impossible to incorporate in their own conversations. Any comments on that?02br
02br
00 CJ0-

Kooyeen · Answer

0 Thank you all for your comments, guys.01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite10My observation is that learners find these nearly impossible to incorporate in their own conversations. Any comments on that?12br
12blockquote

10My opinion is that learners use contractions if they are used to them, for example because they hear them often. So maybe I wouldn't use an "s" after a voiceless sound because I've never noticed one (I probably heard some, but I don't remember hearing them). But after all I'm not listening very much. I'll try to listen to some English as often as I can, from now on.02br
02br
00Yesterday, for example, I heard "did" contracted to 'd. I'd never noticed that feature, but I think it is only possible in some cases, like:02br
01b00How'd you do that? (How joo)02br
00What'd your girlfriend do? (What jur)02br
00Why'd your mother go there? (Why jur)02b02br
02br
00Notice there is always a "you" or "your" after "did", and there are no personal pronouns. So you can't contract "did" in "She did a good job" or "I think Mike did a great thing".02br
00But there's a thing I'm not sure of: 02br
01b00How'd you do that? = How did you do that02b00 -- But it can't also mean 01b00"How would you do that?"02b00, right?02br
02br
050010id1

Contractions again (I am sorry)

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