# Is "should've" a proper contraction?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 22, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917 "2009-04-22T00:05:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/21 "2009-04-22T14:19:04Z")
> [@Mudz](#):
>
> My kids use “amn’t.” They came up with it themselves. Which makes me wonder why this isn’t proper. Why is “aren’t” proper, but “amn’t” not? It fits the pattern: isn’t, aren’t, amn’t.
I think it’s proper but YMMV.
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### Author:  [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/22 "2009-04-22T14:22:33Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Huh, I wouldn’t’ve thought so.
You would be so much cooler if you’d spelled that _I’dn’t’ve_.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/23 "2009-04-22T14:50:33Z")
> [@Mudz](#):
>
> My kids use “amn’t.” They came up with it themselves. Which makes me wonder why this isn’t proper. Why is “aren’t” proper, but “amn’t” not? It fits the pattern: isn’t, aren’t, amn’t.
Who said that “amn’t” is improper? It’s just very, very unusual, at least on this side of the pond.
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### Author:  [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/24 "2009-04-22T16:16:44Z")
> [@troub](#):
>
> Much better than “should of” in any case 🙂
I’m not much of a grammar stickler, but this one just makes me want to burn things.
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### Author:  [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/25 "2009-04-22T16:21:20Z")
I see the contractions in this thread are coming very regularly now.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/26 "2009-04-22T16:27:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> My kids use “amn’t.” They came up with it themselves. Which makes me wonder why this isn’t proper. Why is “aren’t” proper, but “amn’t” not? It fits the pattern: isn’t, aren’t, amn’t.
“Amn’t” isn’t used much because it’s hard to say; the standard contraction for “am not” is “ain’t”.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2009, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/27 "2009-04-24T05:49:10Z")
Some opinions of proper contractions.
> [@](#):
>
> ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEWBURYPORT FEMALE HIGH SCHOOL, ON THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT, DECEMBER 19, 1846.
>
> BY ANDREW P. PEABODY.
>
> …I propose to give you a few hints on conversation…
>
> …for some of the new grammars sanction these vulgarisms, and in looking over their tables of irregular verbs, I have sometimes half expected to have the book dashed from my hand by the indignant ghost of Lindley Murray.
>
> Great care and discretion should be employed in the use of the common abbreviations of the negative forms of the substantive and auxiliary verbs. “Can’t”, “don’t”, and “havn’t” [sic], are admissible in rapid conversation on trivial subjects. “Isn’t” and “hasn’t” are more harsh, yet tolerated by respectable usage.
>
> “Didn’t”, “couldn’t”, “wouldn’t”, and “shouldn’t”, make as unpleasant combinations of consonants as can well be uttered, and fall short but by one remove of those unutterable names of Polish gentlemen, which sometimes excite our wonder in the columns of a newspaper.
>
> “Won’t” for “will not”, and “aint” [sic] for “is not” or “are not”, are absolutely vulgar; and “aint” [sic], for “has not” or “have not”, is utterly intolerable…
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2009, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-shouldve-a-proper-contraction/493917/28 "2009-04-24T08:59:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> “Amn’t” isn’t used much because it’s hard to say; the standard contraction for “am not” is “ain’t”.
I disagree about it being hard to say. It _looks_ like it should be hard to say with the adjacent m and n but it is no more difficult than shouldn’t, with a vowel of convenience placed between the consonants.
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