I’ve been googling this and coming up with conflicting answers.
Obviously, a contraction like can’t counts as one word because it’s a contraction of one word: cannot. What about words such as couldn’t or isn’t?
Depends on whether you had an orgasm during it.
Since (1) no space appears to separate the letters, and (2) neither “couldn’t” nor “isn’t” can be split as-is into two words (a rule that your example “cannot” violates BTW), I vote that each contraction is a single word.
Considered by whom? Until you answer that question, of course you’re going to get conflicting answers to your original one.
In traditional publishing wordcount, a contraction is considered the number of characters divided by six, just like every other word. You count the number of characters in a line and divide by six.
Publishing wordcount has to be precise, so six characters equal one word.
That’s part of the problem, of course. Any suggestions?
Microsoft Word (2007) says the OP’s contractions are each one word, not two.
Not saying it’s the definitive standard, but it seems a good place to start.
Microsoft Word counts every word without spaces as one word, but that doesn’t really answer the question. Where art thou William Safire?
Coincidentally, just a few hours ago I saw the Simpsons episode in which Bart gets a position on Krusty’s show and becomes a celebrity by as the “I didn’t do it” boy, simply saying this catchphrase in each sketch. Lisa makes fun of him because his fame is based on just four words, implying that “didn’t” counts as one. Since the Simpsons form an important part of my perspective on things, that would be enough for me.
I can’t think of anyone, anywhere, anytime in the publishing world who thinks contractions should count as two words.
If it’s for some special purpose, like a college entry essay, then you ask them what their rules are. There won’t be a general answer.
Context is, as usual, everything. Blank Slate, it’s your question. How can you not know what the context of it is?
I was thinking along the lines of a grammatical rule; something an English professor would answer with dismissive authority.
No possible way. Word count doesn’t belong to any form of grammar, style, usage, meaning, or category that you can have a standard academic judgment about.
You need word count to make payment by the word, a standard form of publishing since the 19th century. Editors need word counts to estimate length in order to lay out the pages of newspapers, magazines, books or other printed materials. Professors give word counts to ensure that students do some minimum amount of work. Bureaucrats enforce word count so that nobody exceeds a certain maximum, in forms or contests or whatever.
Notice that none of these have anything to do with the language itself. Word counts are closer to an issue of contract law. But that gives its own answer: contracts don’t have universal standards. You can negotiate any contract terms you want. Certain professions may have traditions that have become the norm, as I said about publishing. Nevertheless, if I had the clout to negotiate a contract in which a contraction would count as two words, I could still do so whenever I could get away with it.
It’s all context.
Here’s something to really blow your mind: Is “Area Code” one word or two words? There’s a space in it, yet it can be found in most dictionaries.
Is that a whoosh, because it’s pretty obscure. Service station is the dictionary too. And?
Thanks Exapno. I understand what you’re saying. It does answer the question because I was looking for a factual answer where there isn’t one. A definitive one, anyway, like “tree is a noun”.
Yes, let’s not go by MS word. I use ** for scene breaks, and ** is a word as far as the word-counter is concerned. (as are any other characters on a page seperated by a space)
To me it would just seem easier to just use the character count.
Works for me. I always considered contractions to be one word.
From my perspective, there’s no reason not to consider a contraction as a single word.
But, as others have said, there is no linguistic authority that’s going to speak on this issue, because it’s not a linguistic question.
Consult the person asking you to count words what he or she thinks, and you have your answer.
Here is one answer. My wife is a professional translator and she charges by the word. Occasionally a client will ask her l’ counts as a word. She insists on counting it. For one thing, the definite article in French is sufficiently differently used from the one in English that translating it can take longer than most words. If the source comes in MS Word (normal these days) then the count will be wrong, but she adds the number of ’ she finds.
I think the answer is quite obviously that “area code” consists of two words. One of them - area - is an attribute that modifies the other noun - code -, and the fact that this combination of modifying and modified noun is very frequent justifies their inclusion in a dictionary as a lemma. But they’re still two words, and I would find it very difficult to argue otherwise.