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#20344 - 02/28/01 08:29 AM I'd've
NicholasW enthusiast Registered: 12/18/00 Posts: 393 Loc: London	Double contractions like this don't occur in standard print. I do sometimes use it. My rule of thumb is to do it if it's needed to show what I say. Written "I have" is pronounced as two distinct words: I don't read it as "I've". Nor do I read "do not" as "don't". But given written "I'd have", I'd pronounce it as "I'd've", not (normally) with a distinct "have". So there's no need to supply the second contraction in writing, when the standard form "I'd have" is pronounced in the way you want. That said, I've noticed my use of "I'd've" is increasing, when I'm writing more colloquially. In the same way, I might write "Elizabeth'll do it", where in serious print you only get pronoun + contraction.
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#20345 - 02/28/01 09:47 AM Re: I'd've
Sparteye Pooh-Bah Registered: 01/05/01 Posts: 1773	In formal writing, I do not use contractions at all.
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#20346 - 02/28/01 09:53 AM Re: I'd've
maverick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/15/00 Posts: 4757	In formal writing, I do not use contractions at all. ...whereas in formal contracts, most lawyers do not use writing at all (or not as we understand it, Jim!)
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#20347 - 02/28/01 09:59 AM Re: I'd've
belMarduk Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/28/00 Posts: 2888	Oh they write all right. They write and write and write and write until the whole point is lost in a jumble of words so obscure that it is quite unintelligible to the average human being.
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#20348 - 02/28/01 10:03 AM Re: I'd've
maverick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/15/00 Posts: 4757	quite unintelligible to the average human being... ...requiring another lawyer to translate it for you... [$$$$$]
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#20349 - 02/28/01 10:04 AM Re: I'd've
Sparteye Pooh-Bah Registered: 01/05/01 Posts: 1773	Well, if we just wrote it in plain English so everyone could understand it, we'd write ourselves right out of our jobs, now, wouldn't we? We're not as dumb as we look!
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#20350 - 02/28/01 10:09 AM Re: I'd've
maverick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/15/00 Posts: 4757	No wonder medical malpractice is such a killer in the States - just imagine all those doctors talking one language to all those lawyers talking another - and neither speaking English! hey, we need some Esperanto around here
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#20351 - 02/28/01 12:21 PM Re: I'd've
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York	I'm kinda partial to y'all'll
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#20352 - 02/28/01 12:46 PM Re: I'd've
Bobyoungbalt veteran Registered: 11/22/00 Posts: 1289	formal writing I tend to agree, sort of. I view written English as different from spoken English, more formal. Hence, I use few contractions in writing, which means that my style, as people are always telling me, is stiff, pedantic, pretentious, elegant, old-fashioned, (choose one or more), depending on who is doing the telling. However, I have developed a new, freer style more like spoken English for e-mail and chat-room purposes, which I feel are supposed to be a sort of written conversation.
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#20353 - 02/28/01 01:27 PM Re: Y'all'll
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13659	Or Y'all'll've
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