Check this sentence: My bag's heavy.

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cnjackie88

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My bag's heavy.
The whole sentence is "My bag is heavy."
So, bag's is short for bag and is. But according to the grammar rules, only pronoun and the word that can be abbrevated with is and are.
Does "My bag's heavy." exist in both spoken Enlish and written English?
 

GoesStation

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Does "My bag's heavy" exist in both spoken [STRIKE]Enlish[/STRIKE] and written English?
Yes. It's very slightly informal in written English and natural in almost any register of the spoken language.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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My bag's heavy.
The whole sentence is "My bag is heavy."

"My bag's heavy" and "My bag is heavy" are both whole sentences.


Bag's is short for bag and is.

Yes. It's a contraction.


But according to the grammar rules, only pronouns and the words that can be contracted with is and are.

1. Your phrase bag is includes is, so it fits your rules.

2. What rules? We have lots of contractions. Examples:


- can't
- I'll
- should've
- who'd


Does "My bag's heavy." exist in both spoken English and written English?

Yes. It exists in spoken English because it's a natural and grammatical thing to say. It exists in written English because you wrote it.
Avoid the gratuitous use of So.

You might like looking up the difference between contraction and abbreviation.
 
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cnjackie88

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I know bag's is short for bag and is.
But it is not common in our English book. We can say He's a teacher, because "he" is a pronoun. If it is a normal noun, it can also be a contraction for "* is"?
What about this sentence: My bags're heavy.
 

GoesStation

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What about this sentence: "My bags're heavy."
That's common in spoken English. It's not suitable in formal written English. You should only write it when you're writing down someone's exact words or writing in a very casual context.

Always put quotation marks around quoted text.
 

Charlie Bernstein

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To my little ears, bags are and bags're sound pretty much the same when spoken.

So I wouldn't write bags're anywhere — not for formal or informal writing or quotes.

I guess it's up to you!
 

Charlie Bernstein

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My bag's heavy.
The whole sentence is "My bag is heavy."
[STRIKE]So,[/STRIKE] Bag's is short for bag and is. But according to the grammar rules, only pronoun and the word that can be abbrevated with is and are.
Does "My bag's heavy." exist in both spoken Enlish and written English?
PS: Your "So" is meaningless and a bad habit to get into. Yes, lots of people picked up the habit in the past few years.

It doesn't sound good. It's like starting a sentence with "Um."
 
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