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Wed 4 Oct, 2017 12:30 pm
Hey guys!
I have to continue a story. And it will be marked. We should count the words in the end. But do words like can't and don't count as 1 or 2 words?
Thanks
@CrazyMausi2000,
per Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) --
Quote:Contracted words count as the number of words they would be if they were not contracted.
For example, isn't, didn't, I'm, I'll are counted as two words (replacing is not, did not, I am, I will).
Where the contraction replaces one word (e.g. can't for cannot), it is counted as one word.
As Region says, it is common to count a contraction according to what it replaces. Under that scheme can't is one word because it replaces cannot, while won't, don't, wouldn't, would count as two words because they replace will not, do not, would not, respectively. Word processor word-count software is not usually clever enough to embody this, I think*. If you would be penalised for too many (or too few) words, it might be as well to find out from your teacher what word count value is given to contractions.
* My Microsoft Word 2003 thinks that "I won't sing because I can't." is six words.
@centrox,
Quote:* My Microsoft Word 2003 thinks that "I won't sing because I can't." is six words.
Because "won't" replaces "wonnot"... I think...
Jeeze . . . there is no word "wonnot" in English. When I was in university, we used a simple rule of thumb, which was that five spaces--characters, apostrophes, spaces between words--made a "word" for purposes of counting the number of words. That's not a hard and fast rule, it's just a useful way of determining how many words are in one's essay.
@Setanta,
Not sure, but I think that applies for writers who get paid by the word.
@roger,
Could be--it would certainly have been easy in the old days when typesetters could count up the words pretty quickly.
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
Jeeze . . . there is no word "wonnot" in English.
But there is such a word,
cannot. Just saying to muddle the whole scene.
@Region Philbis,
Thanks :-)
Yea. Contracted words and not abbreviated words. 😂😂😂😂
I've never heard of this term before. 😂😂😂
@centrox,
I usually don't write essays via computer. Tbh, I haven't got a printer.
It would be marvellous if computer could count words in handwritten essays.😁😁; Thanks!
@CrazyMausi2000,
CrazyMausi2000 wrote:
It would be marvellous if computer could count words in handwritten essays.
When I was at school in the 1960s, when we had to write a précis, where word count was important, we were taught to use a pencil and straight edge to make vertical lines on ruled paper thus creating a grid, and then write one word in each rectangle. This made counting easier, and also it made you think about each word.
@Setanta,
Maybe he means wingnut, he must have heard that a lot.
If nothing else is demonstrates the very poor educational attainments of Holocaust denying, neo Nazi religious fruitcakes.
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