Originally Posted by Canelek (Post 2524031)

They are often used in place of omitted letters such as do not becoming don't.

Originally Posted by Canelek (Post 2524031)

I do not believe they are intended to shorten a past tense word.

Originally Posted by Canelek (Post 2524031)

That said, duoed is indeed not a human word. Soloed, however, is.

Originally Posted by paulgiamatti (Post 2524120)

This is called a contraction.



You're correct in this belief - they aren't, and never will be. I don't particularly mind when people do this conversationally because I'm not an obnoxious pedant (not suggesting you are either), but I do make a passive mental note about someone when they do it. "Ah, this person doesn't know how to write very well in the English language." No biggie. Lots of people have the same problem.



On that note, it's also technically incorrect to use apostrophes (not apostrophe's) for pluralization - e.g., "I grew up in the '90s" is correct, while "I grew up in the 90's" is not. "I won seven CoFs today" is correct, while "I won seven CoF's today" is not. Apostrophes, unless used as a contraction, should generally only be used to denote possession, except when used as a quotation mark or arbitrarily in a formal title - e.g., "Caiu totally ganked Aftermath's Bladestopper while they were trying to recharge it."

Originally Posted by paulgiamatti (Post 2524139)

Punctuation outside of quotation marks actually isn't technically wrong when it isn't a part of the quote. It's just more British than American, weirdly enough. American English teaches that you should always place punctuation inside of quotes, regardless of what the punctuation belongs to. I think the British way is becoming more universal, because it honestly just makes more sense.

Originally Posted by Sadre Spinegnawer (Post 2524140)

loramin: they have to be from imgur. they changed the forums last year sometime, only imgur stuff shows up. smooth operators ~la