English
English has a number of contractions, mostly involving the elision of a vowel (which is replaced by an apostrophe in writing), as in I'm for "I am", and sometimes other changes as well, as in won't for "will not". These contractions are commonly used in speech and in informal writing, though tend to be avoided in more formal writing.
The main contractions are listed in the following table (for more explanation see English auxiliaries and contractions).
| Full form | Contracted | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| not | –n't | Irregular forms: "ain't", "don't", "won't", "shan't". "n't" can only be attached to an auxiliary verb which is itself not contracted. |
| let us | let's | only contracted for first-person plural imperative (e.g. not for "Let us go" as a command to a third person) |
| am | –'m | only in "I'm" |
| are | –'re | we're /wɪr/ is pronounced differently than were /wûr/ |
| is | –'s | |
| does | very informal, as in "What's he do there every day?" | |
| has | ||
| as | nonstandard English dialect for the relative pronoun "that" | |
| have | –'ve | English only contracts forms of have when used as auxiliaries |
| had | –'d | |
| did | very informal, as in "Where'd she go?" | |
| would | ||
| will, shall | –'ll | |
| of | o'– | used mostly in o'clock, where it is mandatory in contemporary use |
| it | 't– | Archaic, except in stock uses such as 'Twas the night before Christmas |
| them | 'em | contracted from hem, but used for modern them |
| him | 'im | |
| is not | isn't, or ain't | ain't is contracted from am not but now also used for is not; generally deprecated in modern use |
| you all | y'all | is a contraction of the words "you" and "all." Where the "you" becomes "ya" colloquially, and the apostrophe replaces the "a" of "all". It is used as a plural second-person pronoun. Mainly used in the United States. |
Some forms of syncope may also be considered contractions, such as wanna for want to, gonna for going to, and others common in colloquial speech.
In subject–auxiliary inversion, the contracted negative forms behave as if they were auxiliaries themselves, changing place with the subject. For example, the interrogative form of He won't go is Won't he go, whereas the uncontracted equivalent is Will he not go?, with not following the subject.
Read more about this topic: Contraction (grammar)
Famous quotes containing the word english:
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—George Orwell (1903–1950)
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why American men think that success is everything
when they know that eighty percent of them are not
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if they are not why do they not keep on being
interested in the things that interested them when
they were college men and why American men different
from English men do not get more interesting as they
get older.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“The English language is like a broad river on whose bank a few patient anglers are sitting, while, higher up, the stream is being polluted by a string of refuse-barges tipping out their muck.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)