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Ronnie's a bad influence on her. Keep him away.

Can we use an apostrophe and "S" to say is at the end of a name to say somebody is when writing informally?

Soumya Ghosh
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    Yes, almost always. (Some people object to this when the name ends with an /s/ or /z/ sound. In this case Rose's sounds almost exactly like Rose is, so they question the point of using the contraction.) – Peter Shor Jan 20 '19 at 18:58
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    Tbh, depending on exactly how informal you want to be, you can use pretty much anything in informal writing, so long as it is understandable. Though different people may have different opinions of you. – ZerGreenOne Jan 21 '19 at 07:54

1 Answers1

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Yes, this is correct. It's not required, but it's okay to contract names with "is" when there's a direct object, like here. We wouldn't say things like

Who's going to set the table? Ronnie's.

In this case, we'd never contract. Formally, it's better to avoid contraction, but in any case where contraction is okay, this is the way it would be done:

Who's going to set the table? Ronnie is.

And your case is correct as well:

Ronnie's a bad influence on her. Keep him away.

For the case where the name ends with an "s" sound, the proper way would be:

James' a bad influence on her. Keep him away.

Others argue that it might be better to simply not use any apostrophe, ie. "James a bad influence". In either case, not contracting at all is acceptable.

user45266
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  • I don't believe I have ever seen is contracted to just an apostrophe, as in "James' a bad influence on her". It is most definitely *not* "proper", although I can definitely see somebody doing it when they're representing speech. Are you confusing it with the possessive, like James' book? What is most proper in this case is spelling out James is. – Peter Shor Jan 24 '19 at 20:18
  • @PeterShor I'm not confusing the two. Usually, it is pronounced "'Jameses'" (identical to "James is") or something similar, but I'm pretty sure that is proper. I believe the issue is that no speaker would contract there, but if they did, that would be proper. – user45266 Jan 24 '19 at 23:06
  • Dja think it's proper t'write the same way we speak? Maybe sometimes, but not in this case. Use "James is" 'cept if you're tryna write down all the contractions we use in spoken English. – Peter Shor Jan 25 '19 at 00:03
  • @PeterShor Exactly! Hence "James'". – user45266 Jan 25 '19 at 00:07