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  • Contractions and Phrases

    From Mike Powell@1:2320/105 to ALL on Sat Jun 21 10:08:00 2025
    I was having some deep thought this morning. In English, certain phrases
    only sound "correct" when a contraction is is used.

    For example:

    "Can't/Don't you see..." sounds correct, but "Can not/do not you see..."
    most certainly sounds wrong.

    Another example:

    "Let's don't..." sounds right, even though it is two contractions in a row,
    but "Let us do not..." doesn't sound right at all.

    Mike

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  • From Dallas Hinton@1:153/7715 to Mike Powell on Sat Jun 21 18:37:47 2025
    Hi, Mike -- on Jun 21 2025 at 10:08, you wrote:

    I was having some deep thought this morning. In English, certain
    phrases only sound "correct" when a contraction is is used.

    "Can't/Don't you see..." sounds correct, but "Can not/do not you
    see..." most certainly sounds wrong.

    Actually, in formal English the expression would be "Can you not see" -- strange I know, but the verb is "not see" and the contraction to "Can't" really doesn't work if expanded literally! :-)


    Cheers... Dallas
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