Contractions
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Contractions
What is a contraction?
A contraction is a shortened form of a word (or group of words) that omits certain letters or sounds. In most contractions, an apostrophe represents the missing letters. The most common contractions are made up of verbs, auxiliaries, or modals attached to other words:
He would=He’d.
I have=I’ve.
They are=They’re.
You cannot=You can’t.
We use contractions (I’m, we’re) in everyday speech and informal writing. Contractions, which are sometimes called ‘short forms’, commonly combine a pronoun or noun and a verb, or a verb and not, in a shorter form. Contractions are usually not appropriate in formal writing.
We make contractions with auxiliary verbs, and also with be and have when they are not auxiliary verbs. When we make a contraction, we commonly put an apostrophe in place of a missing letter.
The following are the most common contractions.
Contractions with I, you, he, she, it, we, and they
’m = am (I’m)
’re = are (you’re, we’re, they’re)
’s = is and has (he’s, she’s, it’s)
’ve = have (’ve, you’ve, we’ve, they’ve)
’ll = will (I’ll, you’ll, he’ll, she’ll, it’ll, we’ll, they’ll)
’d = had and would (I’d, you’d, he’d, she’d, it’d, we’d, they’d)
Contractions with auxiliary verb and notThe contraction for not is n’t:
aren’t=are not (we aren’t, you aren’t)
can’t=cannot
couldn’t=could not
didn’t=did not (I didn’t, they didn’t)
hasn’t=has not
haven’t=have not
isn’t=is not (she isn’t, it isn’t)
mustn’t=must not
shan’t=shall not
shouldn’t=should not
wasn’t=was not
weren’t=were not
won’t=will not
wouldn’t=would not
Contractions in a view 👇
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