Firstly, my apologies for missing last week. I won’t bore you with details, but know I have a stellar excuse.

This week’s Wednesday Words is going to be short and sweet, but hopefully useful: contractions and possessive pronouns.

Let me start with a line of logic (this helps me remember things): What is a contraction in everyday life? It’s two things coming together. A pregnant woman has contractions, you write a contract, your muscles contract. The basic concept? Two things come together.

In language, a contraction is the same idea: two words coming together. Do not becomes don’t. Taken apart, do + n‘t. The apostrophe represents that letters are missing in a contraction.

Common contractions
They are = They’re*
You are = You’re*
We are = We’re**
Are not = Aren’t
Did not = Didn’t
She is = She’s
He is = He’s
What is = What’s
That is = That’s
It is = It’s*
There are = There’re (kidding)

Possessive pronouns
They’re is not the same as their.
You’re is not the same as your.
It’s is not the same as its.

WRONG: Their going to the concert.
RIGHT: They’re going to the concert.

Say it aloud without the contraction for a hint on how to write it.

They are going to the concert. = They’re going to the concert.

*It’s easy to confuse possessive pronouns (theirs, yours, its) with other possessive nouns (Libby’s, dog’s, house’s). Possessive pronouns are not contracted, nor do they contain apostrophes.

**There are two uses for w-e-r-e: We’re, the contracted form of we are, and were, the helping verb.
We’re so happy!
Were they on the train with you?

Due to the stellar excuse mentioned above, I have to cut this post short, but I do hope the information is helpful. As always, comment or drop me a line with your thoughts, ideas, or arguments.

Today, we diverge from polishing our use of punctuation and grammar to a lesson in vocabulary. I received a book for Christmas several years ago, Depraved and Insulting English, that explores words used in years passed to describe less-than-pleasant people, situations and conditions. On occasion, Wednesday Words will devote a lesson to improving our collective lexicon. In perusing the book the other day, I found a word I thought amusingly appropriate for a blog primarily about design.

pica /PIKE uh/ n • Depraved appetite; hunger for such nonfoods as ashes, clay starch, chalk, and plaster.
Pica has been observed in cases of pregnancy, nutrient deficiency, intestinal worms, and madness.
“The maternity-wear fashion shoot was delayed due to pica when the pregnant supermodel began compulsively stuffing her face with handfuls from the playground’s sandbox.”

If you are able to use pica, with this new meaning, in a sentence this week, email the story to me and I’ll post it as follow-up to this week’s lesson.

Source: Depraved and Insulting English, by Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea

Ellipses are very close to my heart. I use them all the time in writing, as one of their uses is a trailing off into silence. I suppose I could elaborate…

The word “ellipsis” come from the Greek word for “omission”. You use ellipses when you’re quoting a portion, but not all, of a document. I encountered this a lot when I was working for a law firm. Loads and loads of text passed my desk every day, but does an entire patent need to fit on one demonstrative? Unlikely, but you have to acknowledge that you’re leaving something out. Hence, ellipses became part of my daily ritual.

For those of you wondering, an ellipse is a mathematical term for a bounded portion of a cone. You can use the Ellipse Tool in Illustrator. It will create circles and ovals, not small rows of periods.

Let’s start with a clarification: ellipsis is singular; ellipses is plural. Easy, right?

An ellipsis is commonly represented by three periods in a row (…), but can also show up as asterisks, en dashes, several en dashes…

The tricky part, to me, about ellipses is how to present them within text. Spaces on either side? No space on either side? If you’re omitting an entire sentence, do you include an extra period to show this? Are there spaces between the periods?

I am going to show you how I understand ellipses. You can find dozens of opinions on this, but my background is mostly legal, so that is where I get my information. Even at that, there are differing views within the legal field on how to use ellipses.

If you’re omitting a portion of a sentence, there are no spaces on either side of the ellipsis:

Once upon a time…there was a castle.

If you’re omitting a portion of a paragraph, and that portion is a full sentence (or sentences), there is space on either side of the ellipsis:

Mr. Rogers adamantly defended his position. … He believes he acted justly toward the defendant.

This one’s tricky: if you’re omitting a portion of a paragraph, but the portion you’re omitting starts in the middle of a sentence, and ends at the end of a sentence, there is no space before the ellipsis, but there is a period and a space after it. Like so:

She mentioned she wanted to go to out for dinner…. When he suggested they stay in for the evening, she agreed.

If you’re omitting a portion of a paragraph, and your omission bridges two partial sentences, you use two ellipses, with no space before and a period after the first, and no space after the second ellipsis.

We have agreed she needs to work harder…. …to move forward in this company, there are requirements all employees must meet.

Alternate (that’s an awful lot of periods):
We have agreed she needs to work harder…. [T]o move forward in this company, there are requirements all employees must meet.

Note: it is advised that all portions of sentences be complete, meaning, you should be able to read what is left after the omissions as complete thoughts.

Believe it or not, ellipses are technically not three periods on your keyboard. There is actually a “glyph” for an ellipsis. If you’re using InDesign or Illustrator, you’ll find the Glyph palette under Type. If you’re using MS Word or another word processing program, it will automatically scrunch your three periods into a proper ellipsis.

Sources:
The Greek and alternates: Wikipedia
The rest: my brain!

A little-known, yet important, distinction must be made between an em dash, an en dash, and a hyphen. Each has its own purpose, and each has been used wrongly more often than not. Let us explore:

The Em Dash
The em dash gets its name from its length—the letter “M.” It is used least of the dashes. In informal writing, the em dash represents a break in thought or an interruption, and may replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to add emphasis. It has no spaces on either side:

This is an em dash—a properly used em dash—and should be used sparingly in formal writing.

The em dash can also be used to indicate a range that has not yet completed.

Libby Unwin, July 21, 1978—

The En Dash
The en dash is the width of—you guessed it—the letter “N.” This medium-sized dash represents a span that is completed, co-contributors to a work, or a link between places.

July 4, 1776–present

The Unwin–Courter Project

New York–Connecticut border

The Hyphen
The hyphen is the most commonly used of the dashes, correctly or incorrectly. The correct use of the hyphen is to only join words or syllables (in wrapped, hyphenated text).

All-too-common

We would like to recognize our dist-
ribution center’s efforts in leading…

The Figure Dash
For those of you who love proper typography (me!), this dash will tickle you pink. The figure dash is used only in numbers. Only! It is the width of a digit and is hard to come by on a keyboard. Most people either don’t realize this dash exists or prefer to use hyphens, as they’re easier to find.

1245‒130=1115

OK, how?
Something tricky about these little lines, besides learning their proper placement, is how on earth to accomplish them in text, both printed and screen. There’s only one button on the keyboard that even resembles a small, horizontal, in-line dash, and it is a hyphen. Here are the codes for En and Em dashes:

En Dash= Alt+0150
Em Dash= Alt+0151

So far as I can tell, there is no Windows Alt code for the Figure Dash. If you find it, please email me.

Extra Credit Reading/Sources

• Wikipedia’s Articles on Hyphens and Dashes
• The problem with Em, En and Hyphen by Paper Tiger
• Dashes by GrammarBook.com

Ever wondered whether to type out “anytime” or “any time?” How about the difference between “everyday” and “every day?” Here’s what I found:

Everyday vs. Every Day
Everyday is a single-word adjective that means commonplace, ordinary, or normal.
“These shoes are great for everyday wear.”

Every day is an adjective (every) plus a noun (day), and it means each day.
“I go to the park every day.”

Source: eLearn English Language

Anytime vs. Any Time
Anytime is an adverb.
“The meeting can be scheduled anytime.”
Anytime is modifying scheduled.

Any time is an adjective.
“I will not have any time until Thursday.”
Any is modifying time.

Remember: If you could use “at” within your phrase, it is an adverb and should be one word, e.g., “You can come by [at] anytime.”

Source: The Columbia Guide to Standard American English

So many times, I have heard or seen one or all of these words misused. Here is some clarification on the adjective form of each word:

weary
1. physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc.; fatigued; tired: weary eyes; a weary brain.
2. characterized by or causing fatigue: a weary journey.
3. impatient or dissatisfied with something (often fol. by of): weary of excuses.
4. characterized by or causing impatience or dissatisfaction; tedious; irksome: a weary wait.

wary
1. watchful; being on one’s guard against danger.
2. arising from or characterized by caution: to give someone a wary look.

leery
1. wary; suspicious (usually fol. by of): I’m leery of his financial advice.
2. Archaic. knowing; alert.

From Dictionary.com.