There are no apostrophes on Spanish keyboards. Therefore, I cannot use contractions. It is very inconvenient, and it got me thinking ... is English the only language that uses contractions? Apparently Spanish does not. I suppose if you do not use contractions you do not need an apostrophe on your keyboard, unless it is for the tourists.
George Bernard Shaw thought using apostrophes in contractions was stupid and he refused to do so in his writing, so it is full of words like cant and dont, but I have trouble doing that because I am a copy editor at heart. You can get away with a bit more if you happen to be George Bernard Shaw.
I am in Madrid right now and it is still raining. It has been raining my entire visit to Spain. Thankfully I spend a lot of time indoors -- primarily in bars...I mean museums. Yes, museums. There are a lot of museums in Madrid, many of them containing art. I enjoy looking at art until my feet start to hurt, and then I do not really enjoy looking at art any more. Drinking red wine, happily, does not make my feet hurt. So I have options.
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3 comments:
oh matt, you make me laugh and laugh. and not use contractions. i cannot help but think of ee cummings who does not capitalize. it figures that after writing so much one gets tired of having to press the shift key to capitalize. anyway, glad you are still alive and in good spirits after all of that rain in spain. (do you have enough money left to eat after that taxi ride?)
This is my favorite of your posts. Everything sounds different without contractions, and I have never before noticed how charming that is.
Spanish does use contractions... as does German (the 2 languages I have flirted with studying). The contracted words just become a new word.
I just read about the amazing TInoretto exhibit at the Prado. Hope you got to see that...
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