Assuming that it is Standard American English to contract would as -'d, is it standard to contract did as -'d? For example:
I would really like to have a glass of single malt scotch right now.
→ I'd really like to have a glass of single malt scotch right now.
What did you do last night?
→ What'd you do last night?
My hypothesis is that the did → -'d contraction is perfectly acceptable when it follows a question word, otherwise it sounds awkward, or even bad. On the flip side, the would → -'d contraction is actually unacceptable when it follows a question word. In other words, the two are in complementary distribution, at least for the most part.
Note: my question was originally about the spoken Standard American English, but if there is any difference in acceptability between the spoken and written standard, I would be grateful to learn about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment