What other words can be contracted in Spanish besides de+el=del and a+el al?
In another thread, a questioner asked about contractions and one response gave the two contractions with which new learners of Spanish become familiar in some of their first lessons about prepositions and pronouns.
However, Lazarus pointed out that there are other contracted words besides the two familiar one de+el and a+al, explaining that the others would be very seldom used.
I am curious about just what those forms might be and about the circumstances under which one would form them?
10 Answers
In addition to al and del
the RAE lists esotro as the contraction of ese otro.
Additionally, here is a list I found from the following link Spanish Contractions; however, it is doubtful that these can be technically considered contractions as they are not listed as such in the RAE
The preposition con contracts with the prepositional pronouns mí, ti, and sí, and the suffix -go is added to each one.
con + mí conmigo
con + ti contigo
con + sí consigo
When object pronouns follow an imperative, infinitive, or present participle, they all contract into a single word, and accents may need to be added to maintain proper word stress.
ver + lo verlo
mostrar + me + la mostrármela
ayuda + me ayúdame
vaya + se váyase
haciendo + lo haciéndolo
hablando + te hablándote
I believe one more could be a la?
As far as I know, a la is never contracted
I shouldn't have mentioned those other contractions, but there we go:
- daca = da acá
- dello = de + ello
- dentreambos
- dese = de + ese
- esotro = eso + otro
There are a few more, but they are even more rare. Remember: you asked for it!
I hope my voice will be heard too, Lazarus seems to be the only credible source on this forum 
Las contracciones son la forma acortada como se pronuncia y escribe el encuentro de determinadas preposiciones con los artículos. En el idioma español sólo se dan dos casos: . A + el = al, . De + el = del.
conmigo, contigo no se pueden considerar contracciones y de hecho lo lo son, porque simplemente no son más cortos que las palabras que componen el conjunto. Igual pasa con
Ayúdame etc.
When there is a contraction, some letter is missing. You can't really call conmigo and contigo contractions, because they aren't shorter than the words they replace.
A la cannot be contracted.
I appreciate your answer in any case, Izanoni, but are your examples "contractions"? In de + el, an "e" is omitted...contracted. Esotro ejemplo, pero, me parece legítimo.
I trust the RAE; however, as to the others I am not sure.
My dictionary lists the following under contracción
Gram. Metaplasmo que consiste en hacer una sola sílaba o palabra de dos
As you can see the first example clearly contracts both syllables into a single syllable; whereas the examples from the other site contract the separate words into a single word.
Interestingly enough, I found a related term called sinéresis
Sinéresis Gram. Contracción de dos sílabas en una sola: aho-ra por a-hor-a
Clearly, the contractions that we are familiar with del and al, as well as esotro represent this type of phenomenon as a syllable has been removed from them as per the two syllable -> one syllable formula stated above.
The difference shared by esotro, al and del is that these contractions all are made by sinéresis; whereas the others listed above (from my linked source) do not involve sinéresis.
However, I am not sure if there is any special term for either type (i.e contraction without sinéresis or contraction + sinéresis).
Then again, I am not exactly sure that sinéresis is occurring here, as al, del, and esotro are distinctly different words than there two word counterparts (i.e a + el; de + el; ese + otro)
Perhaps it is that these three words were originally just sinéresis that eventually became distinctly separate words from their progenitors out of necessity. After all it is likely that words such as al and del came about to be recognized as necessary (when compared with other sinéresises) as these two would be much more prevalent in every day speech.
I suppose I should just wait for the expert, but it is interesting to research these types of questions.
My dictionary lists the following under contracción
Gram. Metaplasmo que consiste en hacer una sola sílaba o palabra de dosAs you can see the first example clearly contracts both syllables into a single syllable; whereas the examples from the other site contract the separate words into a single word.
With regard to the end of that statement:
"whereas the examples from the other site contract the separate words into a single word"
--
this is only true if you see the words written. Otherwise there is no "contracción" at all.....
should we mention the po' and pa' (por and para) used in the songs or poetry that are often alluded to in threads?
if we're including "somewhat" contractions
how about apocopations? buen, tercer, un
or dropping the s in 1st, person plural exhortations (let's) (e.g. vámonos)
or dropping the d in the 2nd, person plural command before appending the os pronoun
(e.g. hablaos)
this is only true if you see the words written. Otherwise there is no "contracción" at all.....
This was my point about the sinéresis that occurs when you put certain sounds next to each other, and may (possibly) be an explanation for why the words such as al/del/esotro developed and as to why object pronouns are not written as separate words following certain verb forms.
However, I also see your point that no letter is removed (metaplasmo) to make a new and distinct word, and that seems to be the key ingredient missing in the formulation of the other "so-called" contractions.
As Janice said: In another thread I mentioned that there were only two contractions in Spanish, i.e., a + el = al / de + el = del. However....
Lazarus pointed out that there are other contracted words besides the two familiar one de+el and a+al, explaining that the others would be very seldom used.
If what you listed are truly considered contractions then why would Lazarus say that they are very seldom used? He must have been talking about something else because we use combined words like "conmigo" and "ayúdame" all the time.
I'm confused. 
I appreciate your answer in any case, Izanoni, but are your examples "contractions"? In de + el, an "e" is omitted...contracted. Esotro ejemplo, pero, me parece legítimo.
I believe one more could be a la?
