Natives, what's the PDE grammar around double contractions like "couldn't've", "mustn't've" "shouldn't've" or "needn't've"? Are they in use in formal or informal English and in spoken or written English and can we non-natives use them?
asked Aug 28, 2017 at 17:11
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1They might be spoken like that, but are written as couldn't have etc. However in PDE we increasingly see (on forums and social media) couldn't of which is phonetic but strictly ungrammatical.– Weather VaneAug 28, 2017 at 17:34
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3You might be interested in this answer to the similar English StackExchange question Can a word be contracted twice?– Weather VaneAug 28, 2017 at 17:40
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2They are in use and I have seen them used. I would not say they are ungrammatical as I can't think of any rule they break. My favorite example is "ya'll'll" for "you all will".– Peter FlomAug 28, 2017 at 18:25
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3Such spellings (couldn't've) are relatively rare. Such pronunciation, on the other hand, is common.– TimRAug 28, 2017 at 19:45
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2I agree with @Tᴚoɯɐuo and couldn't have said it any better. Are they in use? That depends on what you mean by "in use" – you'll hear them relatively frequently, but see them [in print] only on very rare occasions.– J.R. ♦Aug 28, 2017 at 21:46
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1 Answer
They are used in spoken English and can be used in writing too, although this is not common.
This can be seen in the BBC English course and also in Wiktionary.
answered May 17, 2019 at 21:44
