Contractions – How to Use Apostrophe s to Shorten ‘Is’
apostrophecontractions
For example, I'd say:
The interview's on Monday.
Is that grammatically acceptable?
Best Answer
Yes, the contraction 's for "is" (and also for "has") is very common, particularly in speech and informal contexts; it may be considered bad style in a formal written context. For instance, using it in a conversational email would probably be considered acceptable, but in an essay or letter of complaint the full form would probably be expected.
That applies particularly to using it with:
Nouns, like your example, or "the weather's awful today"
Names, like "John's on holiday at the moment"
Even in relatively formal contexts, e.g. a newspaper article, it is common to use it with:
Pronouns, like "he's rich", "it's raining"
Other determiners, like "that's right", "what's on TV"
You can only contract did (or any other word, for that matter) when it is unstressed.
You cannot, for instance, contract "I did know it", because did is only used there to give emphasis to your assertion that you knew it: "I did know it".
And you can't contract did when it is the main verb of an indicative sentence, or (as David Schwartz points out) the 'stranded' tensed verb of a clause:
✲I'd it. for I did it. ✲He didn't know it, but I'd. for He didn't know it, but I did.
But in questions headed by an interrogative, when did is only there for DO-support, the interrogative takes the emphasis, and did can be contracted.
How'd you do it? ... Note that in speech the 'd you will ordinarily be elided to /dʒə/, "Howdja do it?"
Contractions can be used in any position in a sentence; however, homophone contractions such as "it's" and "they're" sound better when followed by another word or phrase. The reason is that the sounds of "its" and "it's" and "they're" and "they are" are so similar that they can be confusing unless they are used with the context of an additional word. For example:
Also, you might want to check the answers to a similar question posted on EL&U.
Grammar Girl has an interesting write-up on this topic. This paragraph seems particularly important.
The Cambridge Grammar notes that in addition to being available whenever a speaker wants to stress a word for emphasis, the strong form of a word is required in a handful of specific grammatical situations. In particular, it states that prepositions are stressed when they are the last element in a prepositional phrase, and auxiliary verbs when they are the last element in a verb phrase. For example, the preposition “to” has a weak form that sounds like “tuh.” It’s OK to use the weak form in a phrase like “We went to [“tuh”] the movies,” but not in a question like “Fenster is the person you should talk to.” It just sounds funny to say “Fenster is the person you should talk tuh.” For examples with auxiliary verbs, we have “I’m smarter than you are,” and “the one where I am,” with the strong forms “are” and “am.”
Best Answer
Yes, the contraction 's for "is" (and also for "has") is very common, particularly in speech and informal contexts; it may be considered bad style in a formal written context. For instance, using it in a conversational email would probably be considered acceptable, but in an essay or letter of complaint the full form would probably be expected.
That applies particularly to using it with:
Even in relatively formal contexts, e.g. a newspaper article, it is common to use it with: