I was wondering, can I contract "all" and "will" into "all'l"? Is it generally accepted, or is it more of an obscure contraction?
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2Could you give us an example sentence in which it is used? Out of context, it is hard to say.– MickCommented Dec 31, 2016 at 1:29
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4As in all will be well/all'll be well? I can imagine it in casual speech, but I've never seen it in print. I think it would be fine in dialogue, borderline in casual correspondence (including social media, email, etc.), and probably a bad idea in narration or anything more formal.– 1006aCommented Dec 31, 2016 at 1:32
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5I'll echo 1006a and say that if you're going to use this, you should spell it with two l's, not one: "all'll".– N. PostCommented Dec 31, 2016 at 1:34
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1Why all'l? Try all'll. The latter is fine as a representation of speech or in informal writing. And yes it is rare. People might prefer to say they'll all or we'll all.– Arm the good guys in AmericaCommented Dec 31, 2016 at 1:51
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2In my experience all'll occurs in speech, but not generally in writing. For example, I have heard y'all'll used in casual speech more times than I could count, but the more accepted way to say or write that contraction would probably be you'll all, which fits with what Clare said.– Tony DiRienzoCommented Dec 31, 2016 at 4:59
2 Answers
You can use the contraction 'll, which is short for will, in a wide variety of situations. It has two L's after the apostrophe; any other number of L's will be wrong.
Of course, it may not give the impression you want, since it's informal and mostly used verbally. In writing, it's often used to emulate certain accents or dialects.
It's a bit hard to find examples, but I did find some:
She'll get over the mad when she finds there's no one to be mad with, so all'll be right.
Alnomuc, Or, The Golden Rule: With Twenty-four Engravings, 1837
It'll fair off tomorrow and the sun'll be out again, and Mr. Hardy'll be back and all'll be fine.
American Plays, 1935
All'll be right then. He and his wife'll welcome you there, especially when there're little 'uns.
An Unlikely Countess, 2012
It's also worth noting that the contraction y'all'll is used in the Southern US. In some instances, You all'll is used.
No, this would not be a generally accepted contraction. Perhaps it would be used upon occasion to capture slurred speech, but I've never seen it. Unfortunately, the corpora that I checked don't allow searching for contractions, but a Google search for "all'll" brings up few hits.
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1When the hostess in the Atlanta restaurant says, "Y'all'll need a reservation tonight", only the New Yorkers (ironically) think it's "slurred speech".– deadratCommented Mar 11, 2017 at 0:15