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Contractions

General English Grammar & Vocabulary,... » ESL General English Grammar Questions

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Latest post Mon, Sep 19 2005 10:46 PM by Clive. 1 replies.
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Anonymous  +  139416 Mon, 19 Sep 05 08:36 PM
I'm a grammar junkie, and there is one thing that is bothering me with contractions. The other night I was making the bed and said: 'Why don't the covers stay on?' and I thought about it and figured that had to be improper grammar because the sentence really says: 'Why do not the covers stay on?' Which to me doesn't make sense. But my boyfriend said that I was actually correct because you don't have to break the sentence down like that...and when I said 'Why don't the covers stay on?' the contraction is actually broken into separate words throughout the sentence therefore he interpreted the sentence as: 'Why do the covers not stay on?' and he said that my original sentence was correct. I know other ways I could have said it, but what I want to know is if this is proper or not.
Anonymous
, ,
Clive  +  139446 Mon, 19 Sep 05 10:46 PM

Hi,

 'Why do not the covers stay on?' This is a very old-fashioned way of speaking. You could say it if you wanted to, today, and it wouldn't be wrong. But we don't say that, as you know. However, we still use the contracted form 'Why don't ....'.

Language and grammar change, and the way we speak today comes from the way we spoke in earlier times.

If you are a grammar junkie, you came to the right forum!

Clive
Clive
Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
Veteran Member 29,298
El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo
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