Please Help with Contractions

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Aling.sg

#466736 Sun, 20 Jan 08 06:02 PM

Please look at the sets of sentences, especially the last sentence in each set. I understand that all sentences in each set have the same meaning and that sentences with (*) are not grammatical. What I don’t understand is what is happening here? Can you please explain under what conditions contraction is not permitted using the examples provided?

Set #1
Mei is not happy, but I am happy.
Mei isn't happy, but I'm happy.
(*)Mei isn't happy, but I'm.

Set #2
Mei is happy in Shanghai, but she is not happy in Beijing.
Mei's happy in Shanghai, but she isn't happy in Beijing.
Mei's happy in Shanghai, but she isn't in Beijing.

Set #3
Mei is not happy in Beijing, but she is happy in Shanghai.
Mei is not happy in Beijing, but she is in Shanghai.
Mei isn't happy in Beijing, but she's happy in Shanghai.
(*)Mei isn't happy in Beijing, but she's in Shanghai.

Set #4
Mei is not in Beijing, but she is in China.
Mei isn't in Beijing, but she's in China.

Thank you so very much,
Aling

Aling.sg

Joined on Sun, Jan 20 2008

New Member (01)

Contractions

Kooyeen

#466754 Sun, 20 Jan 08 07:17 PM

Hi,
and welcome to Englishforums.
I think it's a question of stress in sentences. When you talk, you stress some words with you voice, depending on what exactly you want to say, what you want to emphasize, etc. You can't stress a verb if it is contracted. Every time you stress verbs, you use the full forms and pronounce them "the stressed way" (good dictionaries usually tell you how to pronounce words that way). Look at the comments in blue:

Aling.sg wrote:

Set #1
Mei is not happy, but I am happy.
Mei isn't happy, but I'm happy.
(*)Mei isn't happy, but I'm. --> should be: ...but I am. The verb "am" would be stressed in this sentence. In the other options, "happy" was the word to stress, so that's why you can contract the rest.

Set #2
Mei is happy in Shanghai, but she is not happy in Beijing.
Mei's happy in Shanghai, but she isn't happy in Beijing.
Mei's happy in Shanghai, but she isn't in Beijing.

Set #3
Mei is not happy in Beijing, but she is happy in Shanghai.
Mei is not happy in Beijing, but she is in Shanghai.
Mei isn't happy in Beijing, but she's happy in Shanghai.
(*)Mei isn't happy in Beijing, but she's in Shanghai. This is ok, but has a different meaning. You'd need to stress "Shanghai", and the meaning would be "Shanghai is the place where she is now".
If you want to stress "is" so that you get the same meaning as the others, you need to say it completely, so you don't contract it (it's stressed).

Set #4
Mei is not in Beijing, but she is in China.
Mei isn't in Beijing, but she's in China.

Thank you so very much,
Aling

And be careful... I'm not a native speaker. Smile [:)]

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (4,062)

If you don't have a sense of humor already, it's about time you buy one.

Verbs