Do contractions make any sense at all?
I really wonder about contractions (he's, they've, etc.). Are they actually considered one word? If so, how can they be correct? They have the auxiliary verbs built in, so they automatically call for the non-finite verbs to follow. Can someone give me an explained overview?
Top answer
Pleas allow me a small rant! The English language is what it is. It is spoken the way we as a group speak it.
- Pleas allow me a small rant!
- The English language is what it is.
- It is spoken the way we as a group speak it.
- Enough people use contractions to make them a definite feature of the language.
- Consequently, to question whether contractions are correct seems to me misguided.
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Pleas allow me a small rant!
The English language is what it is. It is spoken the way we as a group speak it. Enough people use contractions to make them a definite feature of the language. Consequently, to question whether contractions are correct seems to me misguided.
Instead of thinking of contractions as conflicting with some rule or principle, think of the rule or principle
0anonymousI really wonder about contractions (he's, they've, etc.). Are they actually considered one word?
As the name suggests, they are more than one word, but "contracted", i.e., made smaller. Such shortenings of common word combinations in speech are found in all languages. It's just that English has the courtesy to write them out as contractions, and
0I personally don't see a problem here. This is just shorthand for a longer construction. For example:
"He is coming to the party." = "He's coming to the party." (Trying to determine if "He's" has actually been turned into a single word is meaningless, in my view.)
"They have arrived." = "They've arrived."
And so forth.
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