Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

“You should of known better!”
Miscellaneous matters

CONTRACTIONS THAT AREN’T

Keynoters preach the pitfalls of shoulda, coulda, woulda negative self-talk. Their clever alliteration makes a great motivational speech, but it further garbles grammar for the strugglers. This common mistake results from letting the ear override the eye. That is, in the contractions should’ve, would’ve, and could’ve, the abbreviated have sounds like the preposition of. People become confused and actually write or say should of, would of, and could of.

A contraction is two words that have been contracted (or pulled) into one word: they’d, there’s, can’t, we’re, I’ll, he’s, they’ve, we’ll, haven’t. These are proper contractions, acceptable in formal documents.

Others given here are slang, inappropriate for formal business communication.

The “of” Gang:

Could’ve, should’ve, might’ve, must’ve, would’ve. I noted at the beginning of this chapter the way “the of gang” leads many people actually to write these words in formal documents as could of, should of, and would of rather than could have, should have, and would have.

Random Contractions With Will:

That’ll, this’ll, it’ll, what’ll, there’ll, where’ll, there’ll (that will, this will, it will, what will, there will, where will, there will)

Random Contractions With Would:

That’d, this’d, how’d, where’d, why’d, there’d, what’d, it’d (that would, this would, how would, where would, why would, there would, what would, it would)

Random Contractions With Is:

How’s, when’s, why’s, where’s (how is, when is, why is, where is)

Random Contractions With Are:

There’re, when’re, where’re, why’re, that’re (there are, when are, where are, why are, that are)

Many of these contractions are part of our casual conversations because we take shortcuts when we talk. Guilty. But for formal writing, don’t dare. As for the contractions in the following table, use them with my compliments. You’re welcome.

Acceptable for Writing

I’ve (I have)

I’ll (I will)

I’m (I am)

I’d (I would)

you’ve (you have)

you’ll (you will)

you’re (you are)

you’d (you would)

he’s/she’s (he or she is or he or she has)

he’ll/she’ll (he or she will)

he’d/she’d (he or she would)

they’ve (they have)

they’ll (they will)

they’re (they are)

they’d (they would or they had)

we’ve (we have)

we’ll (we will)

we’re (we are)

we’d (we would or we had)

let’s (let us)

hadn’t, haven’t, hasn’t (had not, have not, has not)

can’t, couldn’t (cannot, could not)

shouldn’t (should not)

weren’t, won’t, wouldn’t (were not, will not, would not)

don’t, doesn’t, didn’t (do not, does not, did not)

oughtn’t, mustn’t, mightn’t (ought not, must not, might not)

what’re, what’s (what are, what is or what has)

there’s (there is)

Memory tip

Beware of “contraction contortions.” Visualize circus contortionists who twist themselves like human pretzels into all sorts of unnatural positions. Legitimate contractions typically have only one or two letters omitted; they look and sound natural. Words contracted into unnatural contortions are much less recognizable.