Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hda]

Hello, dear tutor,

I know we can use or not " 's" to indicate possession after a proper noun when it ends in "s", as in "Dennis's car". What about the contraction of the verb "to be"? Is it the same? Can I write: " Dennis's my best friend"?

Thank you a lot,

[MauraS]

That is a really excellent question.

I had to think about it a bit.

It seems that normally we do not make a contraction in writing with a proper noun and the verb to be.

I would say "Jim's a good guy." But I wouldn't really write it.
"He's a good guy" looks fine to write because there I used a pronoun.

So, it doesn't matter if there is an 's' at the end of the proper noun or not. It doesn't look right written.

But you can definitely say "Dennis's my best friend."

Hope that helps