Contractions

What is a contraction?

A contraction consists of two words that are combined to form one word. Think of a rubber band that expands when you stretch it out and contracts when you let it go. To “contract” means to “make smaller,” and that is what we do when we form contractions: we take two longer words and contract them into one shorter word.

Why do we use contractions?

Contractions are informal “shortcuts” that we take in our everyday speech. Instead of saying, “Do not tease the dog,” we shorten it to, “Don’t tease the dog.” We often want our writing to reflect our way of speaking, so we use contractions.

Contractions can be used in informal writing or letters, but never in formal writing.

How do we write contractions?

In order to form a contraction, the letter or letters that are removed from the word must be replaced by an apostrophe. For example, to turn the words he is into a contraction, we must remove the i and replace it with an apostrophe to form he’s.

Alphabetical List of Contractions