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Contractions in English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4512 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 1 of 8 17 August 2012 at 11:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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When I read a text on the Internet, even a book, I find many contractions. Mind you, apart from the most common ones, such as "I'm" and "gonna", contractions have never been taught to me. Most of them don't appear if I look up a good dictionary, by the way. Do exist rules?
My experience has showed me there are words which are different words joint, such as "gonna", "wanna" and maybe "sorta" (sort of a? I don't even now what this one means) and "kinda" (what the hell...? :) ). Also, there are contractions between a pronoun and a modal verb, and between modal verbs and denial words. I know them so this is not my problem. Lately, I've seen words which are larger words indeed, but you can understand them in the short form. For example, "reps" from "representatives". I think it could exist some rule here, although these words also exist in informal Spanish and I don't know any rule for them. I'd really like to know some usual and very usual contractions I'm missing right now. Edited by Dagane on 17 August 2012 at 2:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 8 17 August 2012 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You have a couple of them here:
http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions-informal. htm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| LaughingChimp Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4700 days ago 346 posts - 594 votes Speaks: Czech* | Message 3 of 8 17 August 2012 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It's mosly just phonetic spelling. If you understand spoken English, you probably already know most of them, you just haven't seen them written.
wanna = want to or want a sorta = sort of kinda = kind of Edited by LaughingChimp on 17 August 2012 at 12:58pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 8 17 August 2012 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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English does not have an "Academia Real" or "Royal Academy" of the language. The Oxford English Dictionary serves as a "pseudo" academy of English and Webster's serves a similar role in the US. The words "gonna", "sorta" and "kinda" are slang and not quite considered contractions. The "a" at the end of the word represents the vowel sounds of "to" and "of". "Going to" in fast speech often gets slurred together and can sound like "gonna" or "gunna". "Sort of" turns into "sorta" in colloquial speech. "Kinda" is a slurred version of "kind of". "Kind of" has several meanings, I don't really have time to get into them now but I can point you to some examples on Linguee: Kind of with corresponding Spanish translations.
Words like "reps" for "repetitions" or "representatives", I would consider as slang words that are entering the language at present. I recommend that you have a look at the free Strunk's Elements of Style dating from 1918, which still serves as a reference for writers to this day. There are plenty of modern alternatives available. Search for the terms "style" and "grammar". Searchable Strunk's Elements of Style HTML Best of luck. Edited by iguanamon on 17 August 2012 at 2:11pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4512 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 5 of 8 18 August 2012 at 11:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks a lot for your responses and the links. Linguee.com has been especially useful to look for many words. Additionally, I've been watching a video on Youtube which explains different ways a native speaker can mix some words in his speech. I hope to focus myself on catching that "kinda" subtle differences while speaking so that improving my listening.
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| Hertz Pro Member United States Joined 4514 days ago 47 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 8 22 August 2012 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You may see the contraction I'ma, for "I'm going to." It's often put into service on the Internet (especially to mock Kanye West), but I've rarely if ever seen it printed in any literature, and certainly never in newspapers or business correspondence.
And there's also 'n, the contraction of "and" so beloved of advertisers. You may see this in the phrase "fish 'n chips." 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 7 of 8 23 August 2012 at 10:04am | IP Logged | |||||
If one does want to look at The Elements of Style, I'd recommend one to first read this article by Geoffrey K. Pullum.
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| Hertz Pro Member United States Joined 4514 days ago 47 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 8 24 August 2012 at 7:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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Elements of Style is a good book to read, but not a good book to obey. It gives insight to those who claim prescriptive grammatical authority in English, and which rules they claim must exist. The critique of Pullum is very fair, as the book trots out many canards about English grammar that simply have no authority: ending a sentence with a preposition, splitting an infinitive, and so forth.
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