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I recently came across a sentence in a online publication that used apostrophe-"S" as replacement for "does".

I was wondering; is this allowed? I only know "what's" as replacement for "what is".

The full sentence was:

What's it take to do research on a product that customers already rely on?

It hurt my eyes a bit, but I am not a native speaker, so I don't really know if this is proper English. Maybe can someone please enlighten me?

Dog Lover
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Peterdk
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2 Answers2

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This is perfectly correct, it means 'What does it take...' and is heard in many situations, for example:

What's it look like? - What does it look like?
What's he mean? - What does he mean?

Note that What's can also be short for What has:

What's he done? - What has he done?

Mynamite
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  • Perfectly correct? I'd say more informal/demotic. – peterG Aug 11 '15 at 00:20
  • I'd say it's as perfectly correct as I'd or it's. – Jake Regier Aug 11 '15 at 00:47
  • @peterG 'demotic' means 'as used by ordinary people'. Does 'correct' mean only the language used by extraordinary people? A language elite? – Mynamite Aug 11 '15 at 08:06
  • @Mynamite A language elite? No, just careful speakers. The OP used 'correct', and 'proper English', so that implies the existence of 'incorrect' English too, which seems to be the thrust of the question - not 'What does this mean?' or 'Does anyone use this contraction?'. FWIW as a native BrEng speaker, 'What's it take' grates on my ear too. – peterG Aug 11 '15 at 10:27
  • @peterG Are you saying you never use it's, can't, doesn't, hasn't etc? And that people who do are not 'careful speakers'? Sounds pretty elitist to me. 'What's' meaning 'what does' is not incorrect grammar, it's merely elision, and it's widely heard. – Mynamite Aug 11 '15 at 20:19
  • @Mynamite Of course I'm not saying I never use 'it's' etc. I'm saying that to my ear, there is a difference between 'What's it look like' and 'What's' used as 'What is' or 'What has'. I'm agreeing with the OP, who isn't a native speaker, that to this native speaker, it does grate a little bit, in a way that the other elisions don't. – peterG Aug 11 '15 at 22:00
  • @peterG If you find it grates, that's a personal thing but it doesn't mean the usage is incorrect. – Mynamite Aug 12 '15 at 19:01
  • @Mynamite. I understood the OP to be asking for the opinion of native speakers as to the usage of that particular contraction in that context, because it didn't sound right to him. I'm simply saying that it also doesn't sound quite right to at least one native speaker, particularly in the given example which appears to be somewhat formal, not reported speech. – peterG Aug 12 '15 at 19:52
  • @Mynamite . . .In fact it appears to be the sub-heading at [http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/08/the-final-road-trip-ars-editors-chat-about-industrial-research-labs/] Does that look perfectly correct to you? – peterG Aug 12 '15 at 19:55
  • @peterG OP also asked if it was 'proper' English, and it's my contention that it is. It is short for 'what does'. The fact that certain expressions, dialects or accents might grate on us personally does not alter that fact that 'what does' is correct grammar. – Mynamite Aug 12 '15 at 20:38
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Certainly in an informal situation it is correct/acceptable. The English language is heavily influenced by speech and this has caused contractions to gain multiple meanings purely for ease of speaking.

(Of course, contractions should not be used in formal situations.)

You may also come across singular contractions being used in the plural, e.g. where's --> where are. Again, these are for flow in spoken English; you would never write "there is [plural]".

This is why "what's" can mean "what is", "what has", "what does", etc.

Dog Lover
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