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How come this sentence works: 'Let me know if you’re available.'

But this one doesn’t: 'Let me know if either of you’re available.'

Because the second one doesn't work, there must be some sort of rule about where contractions are valid. What is it?

Andrew Leach
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Alex Ryan
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    Mainly because you're is a contraction of "you are", true, but in the second sentence "either of you" is the object, so you can't combine the you with the are. On a related note, I'm fairly sure that since "either" implies a singular, it should be "either of you is available". – John Clifford Nov 22 '16 at 10:07
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    If we hadn't stopped using the first person singular in the 17th century the first question would have been "Let me know if thou art available" (assuming that the question was addressed to someone of similar or lower status). In some areas you would have heard this constuction used until quite recently (possibly you may still) as some dialects retained it into the second half of the 20th century at least. However you would probably have heard it as a "Let us know if th'art busy Friday, I've got a job for thee". Which is almost the same as your first question but in a different dialect. – BoldBen Nov 22 '16 at 10:30
  • @BoldBen, make that *second* person singular. – Brian Donovan Nov 22 '16 at 13:02
  • @BrianDonovan Absolutely, mosprnt number 9278. – BoldBen Dec 04 '16 at 11:22

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