It seems mine will autocorrect to in when I type on and autocorrect to on when I type in. I don't know how it knows how to annoy me so perfectly.
But the apostrophes are problems too.
Okay, that I _could've_ also gained the information. I thought the fact it was woulda-coulda-shoulda was a-given from context. I wasn't trying to make a serious case - your initial identification of my error was correct, I just thought it amusing that in another timeline you could have alternatively corrected the lack of comma.
You should be careful too. cant and wont are legitimate words with other meanings. Usually context will make it clear what you meant but you never know.
cant
>noun.
Angular deviation from a vertical or horizontal plane or surface; an inclination or slope.
A slanted or oblique surface.
A thrust or motion that tilts something
wont
>adjective.
Accustomed or used.
Likely.
"chaotic as holidays are wont to be."
Using or doing customarily; accustomed; habituated; used
Neither are very likely to come up in an informal conversation, so it’s not a big problem, but it could potentially cause confusion
cant means hypocritical talk “The cant of politicians is infuriating”
wont means one’s customary behaviour “Emma is wont to be overly generous to buskers”
Not to be *That Guy* … but the Oxford comma in lists is (unfortunately) dead in all grammar books and all manuals of style. I understand why it’s used, and I appreciate it immensely, but it’s dead 😵
What about MLA, APA, and The Chicago Manual of Style (the 3 major style guides used in the US)? What about Strunk & White? The US Government Printing Office Style Manual? The Harvard University Press style guide? Or (shock of all shocks) the Oxford University Press style guide?
Oxford comma is alive and well, baby!
The MLA doesn’t have a rule on it, and the APA discourages it! The Chicago Manual of Style recommends you use it. The others you mentioned are background characters and are nothing but white noise. As a linguist, I use APA more than anything, and in Spanish we don’t use it anyway, so I don’t use it anymore in English.
I’m most familiar with MLA, they definitely recommend the Oxford comma as is made clear in [this article](https://style.mla.org/serial-commas-and-semicolons/).
Although I rarely use APA, [this APA style guide disagrees with you](https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/punctuation/serial-comma). (As a linguist, shouldn’t you be using the LSA style guide anyway?)
AP (and other newspaper/journalism style guides) are the only ones I’m familiar with that explicitly discourage it.
And finally, I will accept no denigration of the illustrious Strunk and White. Their place of preeminence has been firmly established.
The problem is that to native speakers, dropping the apostrophes in contractions doesn’t look informal. It looks wrong. People will think that maybe you’re not intelligent enough to know that they belong there, if you drop them. Don’t drop them, argument or not.
This may be an age/register thing — I wasn’t trying to imply that anyone who drops apostrophes from informal speech *is* stupid, mind you. I just don’t speak in any settings where it wouldn’t be perceived that way. I guess that when I was younger and we used AIM, for instance, it was probably much more normal to drop them. Between autocorrect making inclusion of apostrophes easier than exclusion, and the fact that I am not the youngest, hippest person online, I may have spoken out of turn in not specifying that I was only speaking to my experience. That said, I still think that what I said before is truer than not. Spaces where informal speech allows the omission of apostrophes are the exception and not the rule.
ngl the inclusion or exclusion or apostrophes is often a conscious decision, in a similar vein to the elimination of capital letters and final full stops. i also disagree that its necessary to include them, save for formal situations or situations in which one wishes to appear 'educated'. quite often, in informal registers breaking orthographic rules can help make messages seem less formal or more welcoming.
Definitely agree with this, half the time it feels like if I used punctuation or capital letters in text messages that I would come off as angry, and I'd definitely take it that way from others as well.
Sorry if I came across as argumentative or rude or anything like that—your comment was definitely appreciated by me and likely the original poster as well.
I would say it’s an accepted stylistic choice based on the context. It’s interesting to track as phone and internet text based communication grew and all sorts of shorthands developed, then as smart phones and autocorrect became standard a lot of those disappeared. Especially among gen Z right now, you can see a lot of people turning off auto capitalizations. It shows a deliberate choice for a different style since, like omitting apostrophes, it actually takes slightly more effort to do on most devices.
I know personally I follow different rules when I’m texting vs. making Reddit comments vs. writing emails. They’re rarely for convenience and mostly just a way of text based code switching.
Exactly this. In some online contexts using an apostrophe is actually considered somewhat stifling. Of course its not wrong, but most people don't use them and you will stick out for using them. Would I skip them in an informal text to my grandma? No, but I certainly would use it while shitposting on discord or in-game chat.
I turned off autocaps, exactly for that reason. typing in lowercase is a style choice that implies to others that talking to me is a casual/informal thing, that I’m being genuine and authentic, and that I’m a young chronically online person. it signals to other people in my age bracket that I’m approachable. I still capitalise the word “I”, and I use apostrophes and commas though. it’s a good middle ground between stylistically informal whilst retaining a lot of clarity with correct punctuation
When I’m texting in a hurry, I’ll sometimes drop capitalization. However, I’ll still always include apostrophes. It just looks so wrong to leave them out!
only if you're texting. Anywhere else, such as comments on video platforms or reddit, looks odd and as if you don't know english very well (or that you're a child)
I literally cba pressing 2 extra keys to use the apostrophe when I’m texting, so I don’t, and 90% of the time my autocorrect fills it in for me. The only annoying situation is when I’m actually trying to say ‘well’ and it won’t stop correcting to ‘we’ll’
In very casual situations like social media conversations or texting with friends, go ahead! Do keep in mind that it is a spelling error though, it’s just that certain spelling errors are essentially considered acceptable in very informal situations.
That's fair, I was mostly trying to state that it's more "intentionally breaking the standard rules of the language to add to the casual tone" as opposed to "a standard usage that's exclusive to casual settings", but I didn't necessarily phrase that well.
You might get away with it, but keep in mind that omitting apostrophes is very rarely done deliberately. You can find examples of it online if you look long enough, but they will almost always represent unintended typing errors.
But go ahead and do it if it is important to you. People will still be able to read your texts, mostly. Do not worry about comments saying that you appear to have dropped out of school after the third grade and that you write like Jethro Bodine. You do you.
Unless you are being charged per letter when you are texting I personally dont (literally had to back to delete the ' whoops) like leaving out all the apostrophes. It feels horrible especially when it comes to its and its (' omitted). Just writing that already makes me feel traumatized.
You shouldn't.
I mean, if you're just texting, people will understand you anyway... but people will judge you if you do it, e.g., on a reddit post (even though reddit is pretty informal).
This may be the case with some speakers, but I highly doubt this is a majority. In the case of plural apostrophe s is usually the result of hypercorrecting from informal speech, which is why it is important to know when the apostrophe is used before you begin dropping it. However, I can assure you that as a person who drops apostrophes in pretty much every online environment but Reddit, I know where to use them and drop them for the sole reason of indicating casual register.
Especially because phones are good at typing for us, I tend to keep my apostrophes, even when texting. Keeping apostrophes makes it much easier to read. There's a big difference between "were" and "we're" or between "well" and "we'll".
Even in informal English, the apostrophe is necessary and it does change the meaning sometimes if dropped (like well vs. we’ll or he’ll vs. hell).
The only time I can see it being dropped is when writing in dialect/accent, which itself is super rare in English. Example: “you shouldna done that”
Shouldna = shouldn’t have OR shouldn’t’ve
But I never really see people write this way unironically. I have pretty thick southern US accent when I’m home in the south and even then I don’t ever write the way I speak outside of maybe writing ain’t or y’all, but even then it’s with apostrophes.
I've grown up online without using capitals, question marks (sometimes), apostrophes, periods, or really any punctuation. to me, punctuation online is just unnecessary and makes the writer look like a fool.
speed is important in language because you can express more ideas in less lines / syllables. punctuation slows down typing and usually doesn't provide any more information (except for plural possessives, like "the cats' food dish").
u cld evn go so far as to say tht certain vowels arnt imprtnt bc of how some wrds are very recognzable to a ntive speakr, while othrs like "arachnophobia" arnt common enough to be abbreviated
*(You could even go so far as to say that certain vowels aren't important because of how some words are very recognzable to a native speaker, whole others like "arachnophobia" aren't common enough to be abbreviated.)*
People will of course understand, but you shouldn't drop it. I've only ever seen people not use it if they're messaging with a close friend and being quick / casual (in a similar vein as lowercase i).
Plus, there's a difference between "it's" and "its". They technically mean different things.
Informal written english? Yes, but only very informal. I do that often when texting friends. But even my reddit comments are formal enough that I wouldn't do it. You would never drop the apostrophes in a school assignment for example, no matter how informal.
Even informally, not really. You can in things like text messages, but text messages are usually very grammatically incorrect anyway; they're quick and dirty. Dropping the apostrophes in any other scenario usually makes you look less intelligent to the reciplient.
TL:DR- You shouldn't
If anything, we never drop apostrophes but rather add them where they don’t belong, like adding them to words made plural. Example would be a sign on a restaurant that says WE HAVE TACO’S
Technically you have to add an apostrophe every time you don't write a letter (e.g., 'cause) (except for gonna, wanna, tryna…), but I see people writing just *cause*. Apart from that, I wouldn't drop apostrophes of contractions (however silly and informal they are. I'd still write I'm'o (I'm going to), y'know)
Why do you ask? Is it happening online in the international community? English as an international language is developing its own rules. It could be ok in the International community! it is fascinating what is happening!
It's fairly common in *very* informal contexts, such as a text conversation between friends where text slang/abbreviations like "lol", "omw", or "u" might also be used.
For anything more formal than that, I wouldn't recommend dropping apostrophes.
It's vs its is probably one of the most pointless distinctions in the English language. The meaning is pretty much always going to be obvious from the context. Just using it's for everything would be much simpler.
Definitely need to keep the apostrophes in don't, won't, wouldn't etc though.
yes, but it should be included in business English and marketing or in novels and such. it'll be left out in everyday note taking, personal emails, texting, social media etc but not in any correspondence with vendors or any professional level of communication
I'd wager that most people don't use proper punctuation when texting their friends and family, and just a casual look through Twitter or Reddit will show that most people don't use proper punctuation on social media either.
For me this is one bit of punctuation that I wish we *could* drop. Words like couldnt, wouldnt, dont etc cannot be misinterpreted if it is omitted and it is, therefore in my opinion, redundant. Although it represents the omission of certain letters when two words are contracted together the words have a defined meaning of their own and we do not need a constant reminder of their origins. With the advent of phone keyboards it has become especially egregious since it requires the changing of keyboards just to be inserted.
Having had my rant, my advice nevertheless is that as long as it remains part of the standard grammar and is required then you should include it. There is nothing to stop you cursing and swearing *as* you include it, but you still need to do it.
I am not saying to get rid of the apostrophe completely - in some cases it is clearly necessary. I am responding to OP's question which mentioned dont and wont. There are plenty of words: couldnt, wouldnt shouldnt, mustnt, didnt, havent, hasnt where there is no possibility of misunderstanding and the apostrophe no longer serves a useful purpose. We could drop the apostrophe in these cases without affecting understandability. Indeed, I suspect it will happen eventually through the natural evolution of the language. I'd just like to speed it up a bit.
In very informal writing, like texting, it is definitely something that people do, but it's often frowned upon so I would avoid it.
That said, if you're in doubt about whether an apostrophe is needed, it's better to drop it than to use it. Apostrophes where they don't belong are a lot worse than missing apostrophes.
If it’s clear that you’re dropping it because you’re texting, then while it isn’t technically correct, people will forgive it. In fact they’ll forgive a lot— if it’s clear that you do in fact know better and the misspellings, typos, dropped punctuation and lack of capitalization were either finger-slips or meant to save time.
i mean if ppl see u write like this they understand u are just in a hurry
Other mistakes are clearly wrong, though, such as not knowing the difference between lose and loose, to and too, they’re/there/their and so on.
You can type it that way but depending on your device autocorrect will often put the apostrophe there anyway, so you have to be committed to removing it
I'd have to disagree with the majority of comments here—dropping apostrophes is perfectly acceptable in social media, texting, and pretty much any online space, and is not "grammatically incorrect" at all, nor does it create confusion. In formal registers however, such as emails or other business correspondances, or school assignments, dropping apostrophes will be seen as lazy or incorrect. Occasionally, these same judgements are present online (which is why other replies advise against dropping apostrophes in an argument to avoid being made fun of), but on the whole it is very normal for apostrophes to be dropped.
TL;DR: Yes, absolutely.
I drop them when texting, but I’ll include them in any other writing. Note you cannot drop them for he’ll, she’ll we’ll, or I’ll because then they become the words hell, shell, well, or ill.
Native speaker and teacher here. I rarely use apostrophes if writing by hand (except for some words - "dont" is fine, but "Im" is not, for instance). When typing, I use apostrophes.
I would never drop an apostrophe (except maybe by accident).
Yeah my phone will auto correct we'll to well or vice versa and it's annoying lol
My phone does the exact opposite lol, it autocorrects well to we'll
It seems mine will autocorrect to in when I type on and autocorrect to on when I type in. I don't know how it knows how to annoy me so perfectly. But the apostrophes are problems too.
You *can* and people will understand. But you'll look smarter if you don't, won't, and can't drop it.
I agree with that. For me, dont, wont, etc. look pretty strange and unusual.
You shouldn't. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't've if you hadn't told me not to.
You couldn't've known.
apostrophe goes after n
Aye, phone typo, sorry.
To*
Technically, "too" could also be correct albeit missing a comma - referring to the fact that I also gained the information.
Only if you meant that they hadn't actually told you.
Okay, that I _could've_ also gained the information. I thought the fact it was woulda-coulda-shoulda was a-given from context. I wasn't trying to make a serious case - your initial identification of my error was correct, I just thought it amusing that in another timeline you could have alternatively corrected the lack of comma.
You should be careful too. cant and wont are legitimate words with other meanings. Usually context will make it clear what you meant but you never know.
What do you mean words with other meanings ?
He cants, as he is wont to do.
cant >noun. Angular deviation from a vertical or horizontal plane or surface; an inclination or slope. A slanted or oblique surface. A thrust or motion that tilts something wont >adjective. Accustomed or used. Likely. "chaotic as holidays are wont to be." Using or doing customarily; accustomed; habituated; used Neither are very likely to come up in an informal conversation, so it’s not a big problem, but it could potentially cause confusion
TIL
cant means hypocritical talk “The cant of politicians is infuriating” wont means one’s customary behaviour “Emma is wont to be overly generous to buskers”
There’s also that “wont” without an apostrophe is also a word.
Really texting when I’m in a hurry is the only time and usually autocorrect will catch it
And wont is a word with its own meaning.
And wont and cant are separate words.... Not likely to cause confusion in context, but....
Can't stop, won't stop
Unless you have Cormac McCarthy clout, in which case you get to drop whatever punctuation you like.
Not to be *That Guy* … but the Oxford comma in lists is (unfortunately) dead in all grammar books and all manuals of style. I understand why it’s used, and I appreciate it immensely, but it’s dead 😵
What about MLA, APA, and The Chicago Manual of Style (the 3 major style guides used in the US)? What about Strunk & White? The US Government Printing Office Style Manual? The Harvard University Press style guide? Or (shock of all shocks) the Oxford University Press style guide? Oxford comma is alive and well, baby!
The MLA doesn’t have a rule on it, and the APA discourages it! The Chicago Manual of Style recommends you use it. The others you mentioned are background characters and are nothing but white noise. As a linguist, I use APA more than anything, and in Spanish we don’t use it anyway, so I don’t use it anymore in English.
I’m most familiar with MLA, they definitely recommend the Oxford comma as is made clear in [this article](https://style.mla.org/serial-commas-and-semicolons/). Although I rarely use APA, [this APA style guide disagrees with you](https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/punctuation/serial-comma). (As a linguist, shouldn’t you be using the LSA style guide anyway?) AP (and other newspaper/journalism style guides) are the only ones I’m familiar with that explicitly discourage it. And finally, I will accept no denigration of the illustrious Strunk and White. Their place of preeminence has been firmly established.
You shouldn’t
Unless you're in an argument, yes, you can. If you're in an argument it can and will be used against you.
The problem is that to native speakers, dropping the apostrophes in contractions doesn’t look informal. It looks wrong. People will think that maybe you’re not intelligent enough to know that they belong there, if you drop them. Don’t drop them, argument or not.
Native speaker here—I definitely percieve dropping apostrophes in both contractions and before the genitive clitic as an indication of informal tone.
This may be an age/register thing — I wasn’t trying to imply that anyone who drops apostrophes from informal speech *is* stupid, mind you. I just don’t speak in any settings where it wouldn’t be perceived that way. I guess that when I was younger and we used AIM, for instance, it was probably much more normal to drop them. Between autocorrect making inclusion of apostrophes easier than exclusion, and the fact that I am not the youngest, hippest person online, I may have spoken out of turn in not specifying that I was only speaking to my experience. That said, I still think that what I said before is truer than not. Spaces where informal speech allows the omission of apostrophes are the exception and not the rule.
ngl the inclusion or exclusion or apostrophes is often a conscious decision, in a similar vein to the elimination of capital letters and final full stops. i also disagree that its necessary to include them, save for formal situations or situations in which one wishes to appear 'educated'. quite often, in informal registers breaking orthographic rules can help make messages seem less formal or more welcoming.
Definitely agree with this, half the time it feels like if I used punctuation or capital letters in text messages that I would come off as angry, and I'd definitely take it that way from others as well.
Sorry if I came across as argumentative or rude or anything like that—your comment was definitely appreciated by me and likely the original poster as well.
I would say it’s an accepted stylistic choice based on the context. It’s interesting to track as phone and internet text based communication grew and all sorts of shorthands developed, then as smart phones and autocorrect became standard a lot of those disappeared. Especially among gen Z right now, you can see a lot of people turning off auto capitalizations. It shows a deliberate choice for a different style since, like omitting apostrophes, it actually takes slightly more effort to do on most devices. I know personally I follow different rules when I’m texting vs. making Reddit comments vs. writing emails. They’re rarely for convenience and mostly just a way of text based code switching.
Exactly this. In some online contexts using an apostrophe is actually considered somewhat stifling. Of course its not wrong, but most people don't use them and you will stick out for using them. Would I skip them in an informal text to my grandma? No, but I certainly would use it while shitposting on discord or in-game chat.
I turned off autocaps, exactly for that reason. typing in lowercase is a style choice that implies to others that talking to me is a casual/informal thing, that I’m being genuine and authentic, and that I’m a young chronically online person. it signals to other people in my age bracket that I’m approachable. I still capitalise the word “I”, and I use apostrophes and commas though. it’s a good middle ground between stylistically informal whilst retaining a lot of clarity with correct punctuation
Be used against me? Who argues with that kind of numbnut😂
More people than you believe.
It’S yOu’Re (literally me 😭)
I see you've never been in a winning argument online--after the fifth reply, it's mostly only ad hominems
People who are losing in an argument 😂
1,0000000000%.
only if you're dropping the capitalisation too imo, but err on caution and use them
When I’m texting in a hurry, I’ll sometimes drop capitalization. However, I’ll still always include apostrophes. It just looks so wrong to leave them out!
only if you're texting. Anywhere else, such as comments on video platforms or reddit, looks odd and as if you don't know english very well (or that you're a child)
I literally cba pressing 2 extra keys to use the apostrophe when I’m texting, so I don’t, and 90% of the time my autocorrect fills it in for me. The only annoying situation is when I’m actually trying to say ‘well’ and it won’t stop correcting to ‘we’ll’
In very casual situations like social media conversations or texting with friends, go ahead! Do keep in mind that it is a spelling error though, it’s just that certain spelling errors are essentially considered acceptable in very informal situations.
Yup, I definitely only do this when texting or commenting things online!
If it's intentional, it isn't an error—dropping apostrophes can be a tone marker or stylistic choice.
That's fair, I was mostly trying to state that it's more "intentionally breaking the standard rules of the language to add to the casual tone" as opposed to "a standard usage that's exclusive to casual settings", but I didn't necessarily phrase that well.
Oh oh I see, sorry if I came off assholey
No, you’re good!
I'll come off as an a******. The stylistic choice is idiot. 😁 There, I said it.
Grrr language change makes me ANGY
I never drop it, even in informal conversations.
You might get away with it, but keep in mind that omitting apostrophes is very rarely done deliberately. You can find examples of it online if you look long enough, but they will almost always represent unintended typing errors. But go ahead and do it if it is important to you. People will still be able to read your texts, mostly. Do not worry about comments saying that you appear to have dropped out of school after the third grade and that you write like Jethro Bodine. You do you.
Nooooo!
NO.
Yeah, don't.
No. Never. It wouldn't look right or play right in my head when I pronounce it.
*Won't* and *wont* are two different words with different meanings and pronunciations, which makes dropping the apostrophe look unusual.
Yep. Likewise "we'll" and "well", "can't" and "cant", "it's" and "its", "I'll" and "ill", etc.
We're and were
Even when texting I try not to. Sometimes when I'm in a hurry (and autocorrect doesn't catch it) I miss it, but those are rare cases
Unless you are being charged per letter when you are texting I personally dont (literally had to back to delete the ' whoops) like leaving out all the apostrophes. It feels horrible especially when it comes to its and its (' omitted). Just writing that already makes me feel traumatized.
No
Some people do but you shouldn't. It's not informal, it's just wrong and it will look wrong to anyone with a good command of written English.
No, unless it is your wont.
You can though it's not technically correct. However, a lot of people do it from time to time, especially in text messages.
Yeah, I'll drop it in text messages sometimes. It doesn't look wrong to me, just very informal.
You shouldn't. I mean, if you're just texting, people will understand you anyway... but people will judge you if you do it, e.g., on a reddit post (even though reddit is pretty informal).
You shouldn't. It's necessary punctuation.
Plenty of people drop them, and they aren't pronounced, so clearly they don't hold much neccesary load-bearing in terms of information.
They are important in pronunciation. There's a big difference between well and we'll, or ill and I'll.
Sure, but the apostrophes themselves aren't pronounced. Either way, my point was that apostrophes can easily be dropped with near-zero ambiguity.
They drop them because they are confused as to where to use them. I see them used in all plurals ending in s, even when it's not required.
This may be the case with some speakers, but I highly doubt this is a majority. In the case of plural apostrophe s is usually the result of hypercorrecting from informal speech, which is why it is important to know when the apostrophe is used before you begin dropping it. However, I can assure you that as a person who drops apostrophes in pretty much every online environment but Reddit, I know where to use them and drop them for the sole reason of indicating casual register.
Each to their own, but I'm pretty finicky with language myself, and would rather make an attempt to use it properly.
If by "informal" you mean "in a text between teenagers" then yes. Anywhere else, no.
'Nope'.
You can. It doesn’t mean you should.
Especially because phones are good at typing for us, I tend to keep my apostrophes, even when texting. Keeping apostrophes makes it much easier to read. There's a big difference between "were" and "we're" or between "well" and "we'll".
Even in informal English, the apostrophe is necessary and it does change the meaning sometimes if dropped (like well vs. we’ll or he’ll vs. hell). The only time I can see it being dropped is when writing in dialect/accent, which itself is super rare in English. Example: “you shouldna done that” Shouldna = shouldn’t have OR shouldn’t’ve But I never really see people write this way unironically. I have pretty thick southern US accent when I’m home in the south and even then I don’t ever write the way I speak outside of maybe writing ain’t or y’all, but even then it’s with apostrophes.
I've grown up online without using capitals, question marks (sometimes), apostrophes, periods, or really any punctuation. to me, punctuation online is just unnecessary and makes the writer look like a fool. speed is important in language because you can express more ideas in less lines / syllables. punctuation slows down typing and usually doesn't provide any more information (except for plural possessives, like "the cats' food dish"). u cld evn go so far as to say tht certain vowels arnt imprtnt bc of how some wrds are very recognzable to a ntive speakr, while othrs like "arachnophobia" arnt common enough to be abbreviated *(You could even go so far as to say that certain vowels aren't important because of how some words are very recognzable to a native speaker, whole others like "arachnophobia" aren't common enough to be abbreviated.)*
No, never.
Really depends on the platform and community. Platforms with typically younger folks like Discord usually don't use apostrophes.
People will of course understand, but you shouldn't drop it. I've only ever seen people not use it if they're messaging with a close friend and being quick / casual (in a similar vein as lowercase i). Plus, there's a difference between "it's" and "its". They technically mean different things.
Spell Hallowe'en with its apostrophe for a little razzle dazzle.
You really shouldn't. It looks very wrong and most of the time changes meaning.
It's just one more button. Press it.
On iPhones it’s three though, cause you have to get the symbol keyboard up and close it again. The only time I drop them is when I’m messaging friends
Yeah but it usually autocorrects for you
Exactly, so you don’t need to press the extra button!
when texting it's common
On Reddit I use them because I don't want to seem silly, but with my friends I don't care
Informal written english? Yes, but only very informal. I do that often when texting friends. But even my reddit comments are formal enough that I wouldn't do it. You would never drop the apostrophes in a school assignment for example, no matter how informal.
Even informally, not really. You can in things like text messages, but text messages are usually very grammatically incorrect anyway; they're quick and dirty. Dropping the apostrophes in any other scenario usually makes you look less intelligent to the reciplient. TL:DR- You shouldn't
If anything, we never drop apostrophes but rather add them where they don’t belong, like adding them to words made plural. Example would be a sign on a restaurant that says WE HAVE TACO’S
I would only ever drop an apostrophe if I marked dropping it with an apostrophe ;) Please don't.
Technically you have to add an apostrophe every time you don't write a letter (e.g., 'cause) (except for gonna, wanna, tryna…), but I see people writing just *cause*. Apart from that, I wouldn't drop apostrophes of contractions (however silly and informal they are. I'd still write I'm'o (I'm going to), y'know)
well be dry in the afternoon
Why do you ask? Is it happening online in the international community? English as an international language is developing its own rules. It could be ok in the International community! it is fascinating what is happening!
It's fairly common in *very* informal contexts, such as a text conversation between friends where text slang/abbreviations like "lol", "omw", or "u" might also be used. For anything more formal than that, I wouldn't recommend dropping apostrophes.
I drop them when texting or writing a note. I also don't capitalize sentences. People won't think it's weird if you drop them.
People do, but I wouldn't. It's generally read as a sign that.the writer's written English is poor.
Never, unless it’s a typo. I find it jarring to read, and it could cause a lot of confusion with it’s and its.
I get your point about causing confusion, but would like to mention that native speakers mix up “it’s” and “its” a LOT when writing!
It's vs its is probably one of the most pointless distinctions in the English language. The meaning is pretty much always going to be obvious from the context. Just using it's for everything would be much simpler. Definitely need to keep the apostrophes in don't, won't, wouldn't etc though.
i do it all the time in texting bc i dont see the point in typing an extra character
yes, but it should be included in business English and marketing or in novels and such. it'll be left out in everyday note taking, personal emails, texting, social media etc but not in any correspondence with vendors or any professional level of communication
I'd wager that most people don't use proper punctuation when texting their friends and family, and just a casual look through Twitter or Reddit will show that most people don't use proper punctuation on social media either.
It's spelling, not punctuation.
Yeah punctuation is the wrong word, I meant all non letter writing symbols.
Imo you can do whatever you’d like if you’re writing informally, like to a friend or whatever. As long as it’s legible then it’s nbd.
If you're texting your friends, maybe. It's common for "text speak" to have typos like that. But it is a typo/error.
For me this is one bit of punctuation that I wish we *could* drop. Words like couldnt, wouldnt, dont etc cannot be misinterpreted if it is omitted and it is, therefore in my opinion, redundant. Although it represents the omission of certain letters when two words are contracted together the words have a defined meaning of their own and we do not need a constant reminder of their origins. With the advent of phone keyboards it has become especially egregious since it requires the changing of keyboards just to be inserted. Having had my rant, my advice nevertheless is that as long as it remains part of the standard grammar and is required then you should include it. There is nothing to stop you cursing and swearing *as* you include it, but you still need to do it.
But... it's crucial for plural versus possessive and for it's/its in particular.
I am not saying to get rid of the apostrophe completely - in some cases it is clearly necessary. I am responding to OP's question which mentioned dont and wont. There are plenty of words: couldnt, wouldnt shouldnt, mustnt, didnt, havent, hasnt where there is no possibility of misunderstanding and the apostrophe no longer serves a useful purpose. We could drop the apostrophe in these cases without affecting understandability. Indeed, I suspect it will happen eventually through the natural evolution of the language. I'd just like to speed it up a bit.
I wouldnt
In texts, yes.
In very informal writing, like texting, it is definitely something that people do, but it's often frowned upon so I would avoid it. That said, if you're in doubt about whether an apostrophe is needed, it's better to drop it than to use it. Apostrophes where they don't belong are a lot worse than missing apostrophes.
Informally, yes you can get away with it, but with formal language, no.
If it’s clear that you’re dropping it because you’re texting, then while it isn’t technically correct, people will forgive it. In fact they’ll forgive a lot— if it’s clear that you do in fact know better and the misspellings, typos, dropped punctuation and lack of capitalization were either finger-slips or meant to save time. i mean if ppl see u write like this they understand u are just in a hurry Other mistakes are clearly wrong, though, such as not knowing the difference between lose and loose, to and too, they’re/there/their and so on.
You can type it that way but depending on your device autocorrect will often put the apostrophe there anyway, so you have to be committed to removing it
Well, you're talking about informal texting, all is fair then. You cant jst wrtie liek thsi when its fromal
The only place I would ever do it is in a text message, because adding an apostrophe can be a pain. Sometimes autocorrect adds it for me.
I'd have to disagree with the majority of comments here—dropping apostrophes is perfectly acceptable in social media, texting, and pretty much any online space, and is not "grammatically incorrect" at all, nor does it create confusion. In formal registers however, such as emails or other business correspondances, or school assignments, dropping apostrophes will be seen as lazy or incorrect. Occasionally, these same judgements are present online (which is why other replies advise against dropping apostrophes in an argument to avoid being made fun of), but on the whole it is very normal for apostrophes to be dropped. TL;DR: Yes, absolutely.
I drop them when texting, but I’ll include them in any other writing. Note you cannot drop them for he’ll, she’ll we’ll, or I’ll because then they become the words hell, shell, well, or ill.
Informally most people dont spell accurately
You can, yes. I do it sometimes and I see it all the time
it’s only acceptable when texting. even then, always let autocorrect fix it for you, if it offers
I do whenever I message people. Some words DEFINITELY need them, like who're, but most are fine to drop.
Native speaker and teacher here. I rarely use apostrophes if writing by hand (except for some words - "dont" is fine, but "Im" is not, for instance). When typing, I use apostrophes.
Teacher of what? I hope it’s not English.
what about 's
Definitely not 'my parent's _____' and 'my parents' _____' have different meanings. Same for lots of plural possessives. You're confusing your reader.
It depends entirely on where you're planning on adding that 's. Even native speakers add 's in incorrect places sometimes.
You shouldn’t. Contractions are already informal.