Re: Story - TCOAIW

Tristan wrote:

> Okay, yes. I'm wrong... I was trying too hard. 'He'd like to go now'
> etc. That was easy enough. And I wouldn't decontract that into 'he would
> like to go now' to understand it, either. Same as I wouldn't turn 'you'
> into 'thou' when singular, or 'don't' into 'do not'.
"Thou" isn't an archaic or formal singular for "you", I think.  I believe
it's a different pronoun, with plural "ye".

As for contractions like "don't"/"he'd", I was always taught to avoid
such contractions in prose (this was in the normal course of
schooling for native speakers of English).  Thus I must agree with
the analogy with the French "ne...pas".  Not sure whether I would
always find such contractions "awkward" myself, though.

Thomas

Replies