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By: Punctuality Rules! » Blog Archive » MM: You’re Kidding

Punctuality Rules! » Blog Archive » MM: You’re Kidding — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:13:08 +0000

[...] you want to say, “You are,” you write “you’re.” It’s a contraction of the two [...]

By: Gillian

Gillian — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:44:12 +0000

Playing around, we used to say amn’t at home occasionally, but it’s another one that I’ve never written.

DH and I are both bilingual, Fr & Eng, and we have good exposure to several other languages. He went to school in French as well, so we sometimes play with language. We often say ‘Andiamo’ from Italian for ‘let’s go.’ and refer to a really bad traffic jam as a ’stau’ from German because it conveys a clear picture of standstill for miles.

By: ktel60

ktel60 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:52:05 +0000

Kurt Vonnegut once held forth in an essay about “amn’t I”, concluding that the phrasing “Am I not” was more elegant and understandable, notwithstanding the possibility of being mistaken for a maiden aunt. (The mustache would have been a give-away, at any rate.) Don’t ask me for a citation, but I know it’s there.

I spotted this on a sign outside a friend’s office: “Smile, your being recorded on video”. “My what is being recorded on video?” I asked him. “Your helping move out in the dark of night” he replied.

Quick on the uptake he is, my old buddy Vince. (The Irish in me, I think it is, that causes me to turn around my syntax from time to time.)

As ever,

By: Bill Pearce

Bill Pearce — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:16:16 +0000

I’ve never seen “amn’t” before either.

What I have seen sometimes is somebody putting the apostrophe in the wrong place. A day or two ago I saw “do’nt” rather than “don’t”. I’d hesitate calling it a rule, but the apostrophe stands in place of the removed letters and not between the two words, where those two things differ, if that makes sense.

There are exceptions, though. One of those is “shan’t”, which if you followed my “rule” would be “sha’n't”.

The best way to learn this stuff? Read widely and have an eye for detail. Oh, and start really young.

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:34:22 +0000

1. I’ve never seen the word “amn’t” before. Is it acceptable for general purpose writing? 2. BTW, thank you for visiting my Scrambled Toast blog - I accidentally deleted your comment, but was glad to hear you liked the list. 3. I just subscribed to your blog - these grammar posts are just what I need.