BrainKing - Discussion boards (Languages)

Languages

Ask questions or just talk about different languages. Since BrainKing is an international game site supporting many languages, this board can be kind of useful.

Since we will be dealing with pronunciation of words rather than their spelling, I think it's useful to have a link to The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet.

To see translations of some frequently used phrases and sentences in other languages see Languages

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9. December 2006, 20:55:59

Walter Montego

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Contractions of the type that have not in them should only have one apostrophe. "I would not have" is "I wouldn'tve" not "I wouldn't've."

Reza, how's the use of ain't taught there? Avoid or use?

I've never heard the possesion deal with contracting have. That's not a rule I ever heard of, but in your example sentence I would say the word have and not contract it. I think it depends on what is being talked about or possessed. Can notions be possessed? Such as, "I've a notion to do something about that?" I've noticed the over use of the word got, especially when it follows I've. It seems to me if you wouldn't say, "I have got it", then you shouldn't say, "I've got it."

9. December 2006, 21:02:11

King Reza

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Subject: Re:

Walter Montego:Aint's is accepted here. But it is said to be a rather informal form of am not, etc,. so It's better to avoid using it when speaking formally, which is often the case here in universities.

I've heard of no exceptions to what I said regarding 'have.' If it means 'to possess,' it shouldn't be contracted. Otherwise it can be. That's all I've been taught. But the natives make up the rules. Except that 'notion' example, do you have any other cases in mind in which 'have' means 'to possess' but it is contracted?

10. December 2006, 00:53:25

vic, Netherlands, Brain Rook (forever), Male

vic

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Subject: Re:

King Reza: As a general writing rule I do know of "Avoid contractions whenever you can", but maybe that's because my mentors recognized I´ld never get to grips wit´hem

10. December 2006, 01:26:04

Peón Libre

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Subject: Re:

Walter Montego: I have to disagree about the spelling of multiple contractions. In general, there should be an apostrophe wherever one or more letters have been omitted. (In older books one can often find "shall not" contracted as "sha'n't".) I don't know how many times I've seen "wouldn't've" in print (probably not many), but I'm almost certain I've never seen "wouldn'tve".