"No, I am not" or "No, I'm not"

[Rachel Adams]

Are short forms wrong in positive responses only as in "Yes, I'm" instead of "Yes, I am" but correct in negative answers? Example "D".

A: "Are you a teacher?"

B: "Yes, I am." Not "Yes, I'm."

C: "Are you a teacher?"

D: "No, I'm not."

 

[5jj]

Yes.

 

[GoesStation]

The simple rule is that we never contract I am, we are, and so on unless another word follows and the verb isn't emphasized. It's never possible to end a sentence with such a contraction.

 

[Maybo]

The simple rule is that we never contract I am, we are, and so on unless another word follows and the verb isn't emphasized. It's never possible to end a sentence with such a contraction.

I don't know when to add a comma before conjunctions. Why no comma is needed before "and the verb"?

 

[GoesStation]

The simple rule is that we never contract I am, we are, and so on unless another word follows and the verb isn't emphasized.

I don't know when to add a comma before conjunctions. Why is no comma [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] needed before "and the verb"?

I don't know how to explain this in grammatical terms, but the phrase "another word follows and the verb isn't emphasized" comprises a single idea. Suppose we wrote this as the Boolean logic statement "A AND B": both conditions must be satisfied to make the whole statement evaluate to TRUE.

Always use inversion to form questions. You can't just add a question word to a declarative statement to turn it into a question.

 

[probus]

Maybo, there is no simple rule as to whether a comma is needed or not. In informal use it is a matter of personal taste to some extent. Publications often have documents called style guides that set out their policies on commas and other matters of style.

 

[jutfrank]

I don't know how to explain this in grammatical terms, but the phrase "another word follows and the verb isn't emphasized" comprises a single idea. Suppose we wrote this as the Boolean logic statement "A AND B": both conditions must be satisfied to make the whole statement evaluate to TRUE.

Yes, that's right (not that you need telling.) Your statement used and in its use as a logical operator. We don't use commas around and when it's used like this.

 

[Tdol]

“I should define punctuation as being governed two-thirds by rule and one-third by personal taste.”

G.V. Carey, author of Mind the Stop