Dealing with contractions.
No, this is not about going into labor and has nothing to do with babies, but it can be painful at times all the same.
Maybe I could help with a few very common mistakes in the English language.
A few people seem to have trouble with contractions and their meaning. Let me give you some examples of what I have in mind:
It's or its? Well when you use one of those in a sentence, reread the sentence out loud and if you can replace this with "it is", you need a contraction and will use "it's". The apostrophe indicates missing letters. Ex: It's Tim's toy. (It is Tim's toy). When it is a possessive, leave as "its" Ex: Remembering how a contraction is made is its own reward!
You're also encouraged to know the difference between "your and you're". See what I did there? Which one is the contraction? An example might be: Make sure you're taking your place in the world. I this example, you can reread the sentence by replacing "you're" with "you are" but cannot do it with your place in the world. It would sound rather silly to say: Make sure you are taking you are place in the world. It's all in the proof reading. Just take a little time to clean it up makes a big difference to your audience.
Basically, when you want to use a contraction, make sure it flows in the sentence. If in doubt, leave it out and use the long word form, a little more formal but proper!
I hope this helps to alleviate the steady barrage of poorly employed grammar components and is not intended to be preachy in any capacity whatsoever.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog!
Linda
Recent Comments
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Hi Linda, there are many other contractions you can mention: you haven't, (have not); you weren't, (were not); don't, (do not); but how do you relate you won't to (will not), or should it be willn't?
Is this a case of of being grammatically correct by using you will not? And is it any wonder people whose, or should it be who's, second language, or even third language is English, find it hard to grasp the basics of English, particularly with the variations in spelling between UK English and US English.
I'm sure most of the members at WA, including yourself, whose first language is English, understand the problems that many non-English speaking members have, and are only too willing to help them improve their English, both vocabulary-wise and grammar-wise. Thanks for an interesting topic.
Hi Harry... I'm not sure willn't is proper at all. Maybe in medieval English or something. I know there are many more contractions out there but generally speaking, the same rule applies to all and I didn't want to go on and on on the same topic. By the way, a rule is a rule in any language and I'm just suggesting an easy and friendly way to remember a simple rule. English is not my mother tongue either :)
Excellent blog Linda. I needed that. The problem is, the next time it comes up I forgot what I read here. I could never understand grammar in either German, French, or English and have made it a habit to forget about it and just write. Mostly people understand my meaning. And then I have the excuse that English is not my mother language (they don't know that I can't do it in German, or French either).
Like they say: You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Oh, I know what you mean. So much to cram in! Generally speaking, if you use an apostrophe, you mean two words contracted into one. That's the way I deal with it and it makes sense to me. It's all good :)
Thanks for understanding. I feel quite comfortable with my grammatical mistakes because I don't mean them!
You're doing awesome Loes. I don't think I'd do too good in Dutch either. I just wanted to give that little trick of rereading your sentence and see if it made sense. Once you know what you're looking for, it makes it easier... For me at least. I make a lot of associations in my braincage :)
We see a lot of grammatical errors around here, Linda. I think it is just difficult for some people who haven't mastered it correctly, and especially for those who do not speak English as their first language. Thanks for sharing, it will be helpful to many. :)
My mother tongue is French. English is a second laguage to me. Mind you, I was kind of good in Language Arts in school and have a good grasp of the mechanics of language in general. I don't want this post to be taken in a preaching way. Rather, people are publishing to the entire planet and taking a little time to make sure it's as good as can be can be even more lucrative in more than one way... Just sayin'...
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Won't is an old one, I believe refers to "would not", which is a holdover from older version of English.
Hi BSue, I could not find any reference in won't etymology to the effect that it ever meant "would not", as I only know it as will not coming from the old English.
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/4521/what-is-wont-a-contraction-of
I found that interesting link on the subject... Fascinating!
Thank you for your comment!