Shouldn't've

[MotleyCroup]

Is this correct to use?

I have to admit I've always written shouldn't have or should've but I've never combined them.

DS was tought this yesterday (Y2) and it stumped me.

*taught (it's early)

I wouldn't use this in written English. It looks clumsy and, well, just wrong. When I try to type it, the ipad doesn't recognise it as one word and autocorrects

better than shouldn't of ;-)

I have to admit this really stumped me and I was pretty sure DS was incorrect but he was adamant he'd been taught this yesterday.

Squiggel, agree

Squiggle, even.

It's better than shouldn't of, which makes me a bit grrrr, but it's not correct in written English.

Pretty sure I saw this in a book the other day. Technically it's ok but it's not very elegant...

It doesn't look right and I haven't seen it before.

Although it still might be ok.

It's fine. As others have said, I wouldn't use it in a business letter, but you see the double contracting frequently in dialogues etc.

I suppose it's just a transference of what we actually say into words on paper.

(I'm surprised it's being taught though. Maybe it was being shown to the kids as how pronunciation eventually influences the written word?)

Glad it's not just me. I'm pretty sure I was never taught this, it does look clumsy.

I wonder if it has been taught as a counter to the endless should of/ shouldn't of that you tend to get in Y2.

I guess if you teach them an alternative, however in graceful it looks, they'll get the idea and stop using it in a few years.

I have seen this in books (in dialogue) so I think it's correct. Agree it's not v elegant though.

I bet he wasn't taught it though! Sorry but children often argue their "teacher said" black is white, but they have misunderstood something. Maybe the teacher showed it as an example of something that someone had got wrong? And your DC misunderstood.

My teenage DD argued the other day that Communism and Socialism were opposites, on looking through her book she had confused "Communism" with "Capitalism".

Mummytime, I totally agree which is why I quizzed him about it. He's pretty adamant that he was taught this yesterday. He's pretty switched on and in his eyes teachers are gods so I'm sure he was taking everything in and not misunderstanding what was being said. Obviously cannot be 100% though.

Just no, I've never seen that written and I don't think that should be taught as correct, at best it's lazy

I wonder if it was just used as an example of extreme punctuation... To illustrate a point... Rather than being taught as best practice. Don't think you should tell your ds it's wrong, but maybe just highlight that it's more a speech thing rather than a written thing and there are better ways of writing.

Technically it's correct. The ability to write colloquial contractions is a skill that should be taught at some time. Year 2 seems very early for this. It sounds like your DS is doing really well to have remembered this, especially as it sounds like he understood it. The next step for learning would be to understand when it is appropriate to be used.

Is it unreasonable? In a spelling list - yes. In a discourse about how language and contractions work, with a group of children who understand - not at all.

MotleyCroup - lol at the spelling correction on what is essentially a thread for grammar pedants :-)

I would say it's correct, but only for reporting speech. It's ok to say but not to write.

For example, "He shouldn't've gone!" shouted Peter would be ok, but if you wanted to put that in a written piece of work, it should be, he should not have gone.

Squiggle, I chuckled myself. No excuse, it was very early though so I'm blaming it on that. Ds is like a sponge and soaks up information very easily, I can't be 100% sure but I'm 99% sure he won't be wrong on this. I played it low key and explained that this was new to me but then Mummy is a dinosaur, the last thing I would want him to do would be to tell his teacher that Mummy thinks this is wrong, which he would do, there's no secrets in this house .

Primrose, thanks for the example. I'm going to explain how it is best to use this later, hopefully this will also sink in although he doesn't listen to me like he does his teachers.

What do we dinosaurs know about anything?

Useful for writing dialogue I'd have thought. I'm impressed they are covering that in Year 2.

I would suspect that he was being taught it in a lesson on how to indicate ommitted letters with an apostrophe. It's such an ugly construction I can't see any other reason for using it

If this is a thread for grammar pedants might I point out that 'like' (as in 'it looks like...') denotes a comparison and that if you're not comparing something with something the term should be 'as if', or, 'as though'...

Now flame me