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Is it acceptable to make a contraction with an arbitrary noun and the word "has" to create a more conversational style in writing?

For example, can I write...

"Tomorrow, when the storm's blown away," instead of "Tomorrow, when the storm has blown away"?

I haven't been able to find any set, grammatical rules that apply in this context. Any help is much appreciated.

Danny
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    I don’t understand what you mean by “grammatical” rules. Certainly people do speak this way. – tchrist Jun 23 '13 at 20:52
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    I mean it in the sense that there are certain "standard" contractions that are used quite frequently and talked about in books on grammar, whereas this one seems to be used mostly with pronouns rather than nouns and is used much less frequently. – Danny Jun 23 '13 at 20:59
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    Has and have are routinely contracted with pronouns and virtually any noun. – bib Jun 23 '13 at 22:01
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    But watch out for the well-known ambiguity: 'I've heard he's a dog back in the States.' – Edwin Ashworth Jun 23 '13 at 22:51
  • @EdwinAshworth Back in the States we don't contract lexical has, except when we've previously expanded it with got. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 23 '13 at 23:20
  • @StoneyB Wiktionary: have: Usage notes: In most dialects, he's is only used to mark the perfect tense ("He's done something.", "He has done something."), and not to signify possession ("He has something."). Some dialects, however, use he's for both. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 24 '13 at 05:50

1 Answers1

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"Tomorrow, when the storm's blown away,"

This kind of contraction could be acceptable in speech, but never in writing. When reading the sentence, my first instinct is that the apostrophe-s is possessive; that you are talking about something the storm owns. After reading the words "blown away", I understand your meaning, but I can't help but back-track and re-read the sentence again. Any sentence which causes the reader's inner monologue to stumble is either grammatically incorrect or has room for improvement.

I don't think has should be contracted in writing due to likely confusion with contracted is or a possessive 's.

doughgle
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