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Contractions in English

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Dagane
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 Message 1 of 8
17 August 2012 at 11:33am | IP Logged 
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

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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 2 of 8
17 August 2012 at 12:55pm | IP Logged 
You have a couple of them here:
http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions-informal. htm
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LaughingChimp
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 Message 3 of 8
17 August 2012 at 12:57pm | IP Logged 
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

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iguanamon
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 Message 4 of 8
17 August 2012 at 1:15pm | IP Logged 
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

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Dagane
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 Message 5 of 8
18 August 2012 at 11:50am | IP Logged 
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
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 Message 6 of 8
22 August 2012 at 11:46pm | IP Logged 
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."
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Ari
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 Message 7 of 8
23 August 2012 at 10:04am | IP Logged 
iguanamon wrote:
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

If one does want to look at The Elements of Style, I'd recommend one to first read
this article by Geoffrey K. Pullum.

Geoffrey Pullum wrote:
The book's toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a
proper grounding in English grammar. It is often so misguided that the authors appear not to notice their own
egregious flouting of its own rules. They can't help it, because they don't know how to identify what they condemn.

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Hertz
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 Message 8 of 8
24 August 2012 at 7:56am | IP Logged 
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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