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I was writing a text in English to an Italian girl friend of mine whose English is very good. In the text, I asked:

Will you be coming to the staff party on Thursday?

and she replied

Yes, I'll be

I couldn't shrug and ignore it, I had to say something, so I texted back

You should've written: I'll be there :)

But she explained

Given that your question was: "Will you be coming...?" I thought that answering "I'll be" would be correct.

What do I tell her?!?

If the original question had been "Are you coming on Thursday?" or "Can you come on Thursday?" the answers:

(Yes,) I am
Yes, I can

would have been OK.

  • What's the grammatical explanation, or rule, that says I'll be (or I will be) is wrong when a question begins with the auxiliary will?
Mari-Lou A
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  • Oops. Now that I've written it out, I can see why her short answer is wrong. Hey folks please don't downvote, your answers will still be useful. – Mari-Lou A Dec 20 '16 at 09:38
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    Next time she might say, No, I won't. – TimR Dec 20 '16 at 11:37
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    There's nothing wrong with "Yes, I will be". (I agree that "*I'll be" is incorrect though.) – psmears Dec 20 '16 at 16:02
  • @psmears yes, that same thought also came to mind, which explains why I soon posted a follow up question. See sidebar. – Mari-Lou A Dec 20 '16 at 16:43
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    I would just say "I will". The point is "I'll be" turns the emphasis to the word "be" when what is really emphasized is the will part of it that's the heart of the confirmation. – MichaelChirico Dec 20 '16 at 17:47
  • "I'll be" is wrong as a short answer? Well I'll be. Don't that beat all. – candied_orange Dec 22 '16 at 20:58
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    "I'll be" is an idiom in English, a form of "I'll be (gobsmacked / damned / hedgehogged)!" (as CandiedOrange obliquely points out). Interestingly, "I will be" is usually not that idiom, except sometimes if said with punctuation: "I. Will. Be." Otherwise, it's a "straight" answer, and would have been apropos had your friend used it. – MMacD Dec 30 '16 at 20:01

1 Answers1

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Heh, I think you answered your own question in your own question. It's wrong precisely because it's a response with an auxiliary verb, and therefore, we do not repeat the other verb in the short response. In other words, she should have said, "Yes, I will."

See Yes/No Questions, Auxiliary Verbs

And to predict your next question, no, she cannot say, "Yes, I'll."

But for this one, I'm not sure why other than to tell you, it's just wrong and sounds wrong.

Teacher KSHuang
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    This might help explain why you can't use "I'll" at the end of the sentence: http://ell.stackexchange.com/a/2775 . In general, we only use contractions with "not" at the end of a sentence, for example "No, I don't". – ColleenV Dec 20 '16 at 12:54
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    @ColleenV: The “end of the sentence” aspect is a bit misleading. The issue — as the answer you link points out — is that typically one can’t contract the main verb of a sentence. So I will go can be contracted to I’ll go, but in Yes I will. on its own, or in I will, if I’m not too busy, you can’t contract it to I’ll. Contractions with not are the exception to this: you can say No, I won’t. – PLL Dec 20 '16 at 15:41
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    You may want to cover “Yes, I will be”, as that is also correct (while “Yes, I'll be” doesn't seem right). – SevenSidedDie Dec 20 '16 at 17:27
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    This article linked in this answer explains it somewhat. Has to do with strong/weak forms of verbs and when those are used/required. Though it's more targeted to cases like "Yes, I'll", I think the same rule applies to OP's case – SnoringFrog Dec 20 '16 at 18:11
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    @PLL Thanks for chiming in - I didn't read very carefully, I just knew I had seen an explanation that I thought was relevant and quickly tossed it out there :) – ColleenV Dec 20 '16 at 22:26
  • @SevenSidedDie Are you sure? I don't think, "Yes, I will be" is correct. I Ngrammed "yes i will be" and got a result of zero. Also Ngrammed "yes, i will be" and "yes" got positive results, but "i will be" got zero results, too. – Teacher KSHuang Dec 22 '16 at 09:41
  • @SnoringFrog I kind of want to suggest to you to change your comment to an answer. But then it'd just be a repeat answer of someone else's. In which case, I feel like I want to mark this question as a repeat question. – Teacher KSHuang Dec 22 '16 at 09:52
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    @SnoringFrog I gave a comment on the underlying reason why this strong/weak/clitic distinction exists from a stress-based point of view in this ELU answer. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 23 '16 at 00:45