Is a contraction considered one word or two?

[don_t_ask]

dunno

[Schnitte]

@Hari_Seldon

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.

She should add the number of hyphens as well, to ensure that, by the same logic, hyphenations consisting of several words (e.g. “pouvez-vous” or “y a-t-il”) are not counted as one.

[Alessan]

I’m a professional translator too, and I charge whatever Word 2003 tells me to. It all gets rounded off to the closest 250 words anyway.

[Schnitte]

Reminds me of all the legal, semi-legal and certainly illegal advice I got from people when I was having trouble to keep within the word limit of my dissertation. The most shocking advice: When you submit the electronic version of it for word count and plagiarism check, hyphenate words but colour the hyphen white. Word will count the two words as one, but they won’t notice.

I didn’t follow the advice and rather cut parts of my dissertation - partially for academic honesty considerations, partially because I wouldn’t even want to think of the consequences if they do find out.

[Misnomer]

@BlankSlate

Where art thou William Safire?

Dead.

[Omar_Little]

@BlankSlate

I was thinking along the lines of a grammatical rule; something an English professor would answer with dismissive authority.

Contractions count as one word. If you wanted a higher word count don’t use the contraction.

[robert_columbia]

@Exapno_Mapcase

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?

Yes. If you need a formal word count for a specific purpose like fulfilling the requirements of an academic essay, product specification, report, white paper, press release, or something like that, you should contact a higher-up (professor, supervisor, manager, editor, etc.) for clarification on the applicable policies specific to your task.

[Rucksinator]

@Exapno_Mapcase

…If it’s for some special purpose, like a college entry essay…

@BlankSlate

I was thinking along the lines of a grammatical rule; something an English professor would answer with dismissive authority.

I’m thinking that if it’s for a college essay of any kind, that you probably shouldn’t use contractions at all, and I’m thinking that an English professor would tell you that.