Eli5 – How would you explain when to use “I’ll” vs “I will” to someone who isn’t a native speaker?

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For example why does it sound unnatural to say “I’ll not use this for profit.”?

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13 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are a couple times where contractions aren’t grammatical*, one is to end a sentence. So a sentence like “No one will love you like I will” can have the first will contracted but not the second, because it’s sentence/clause final with no verb after it. Same for sentences like “I’m glad you are”, “I am!” Can’t be contacted. When it comes to negation, it’s kinda random. Like, “you are not” can be “you aren’t” or “you’re not” and as far as I can think of, there’s no semantic or grammatical distinction. But other contractions either always contract subject+verb and others verb+not. For those you just have to memorize unfortunately

Anonymous 0 Comments

Not quite what you asked, but on a related subject: contractions involving the subject+verb are only used when it’s a helping verb, not the main verb. For example “I’ve gone there” is ok but not “I’ve a piano”.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Though I’ll is a complete subject/verb, it’s not used as a complete sentence.

Can you buy milk?

I will (not I’ll)