“Teacher, if contractions are so common in English, why do people sometimes not use them?” One of my adult students asked. “How do I decide between ‘It’s not my plan’ or ‘It is not my plan’.”
I gave her the standard answer:
“Contractions are generally avoided in formal English.”
It was, of course, incomplete.
“My other teacher sometimes said “You should not talk so fast” and other times “You shouldn’t talk so fast”. What’s the difference?” She inquired.
We use the full form for emphasis
Now I knew I could not get away with a fast answer. I changed my lesson plan and took off ten minutes to explain that we also write the full form of a contraction when we want to accentuate something.
She asked me for examples. I wrote three on the whiteboard.
Examples
- “I do not like this solution” conveys a stronger message than “I don’t like this solution”.
- “We will finish the building on time” (instead of “We’ll finish the building on time”) further convinces the reader that you will actually do what you have promised.
- “They cannot start yet” is more persuasive than “They can’t start yet”.
Easy and useful
It was a valuable lessons. Her question had led me to explain that spelling out contractions is an easy way to tell people you strongly believe in what you’re saying. Simple and useful too!
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