Is the word into a contraction

A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds.

In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations and initialisms (including acronyms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term «abbreviation» in layman’s terms.^[1] Contraction is also distinguished from morphological clipping, where beginnings and endings are omitted.

The definition overlaps with the term portmanteau (a linguistic blend), but a distinction can be made between a portmanteau and a contraction by noting that contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as do and not, whereas a portmanteau word is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept that the portmanteau describes.

English[edit]

English has a number of contractions, mostly involving the elision of a vowel (which is replaced by an apostrophe in writing), as in I’m for «I am», and sometimes other changes as well, as in won’t for «will not» or ain’t for «am not». These contractions are common in speech and in informal writing, but tend to be avoided in more formal writing (with limited exceptions, such as the mandatory form of «o’clock»).

The main contractions are listed in the following table (for more explanation see English auxiliaries and contractions).

Full form	Contracted	Notes
not	-n’t	informal; any auxiliary verb + not is often contracted, e.g. can’t, don’t, shan’t, shouldn’t, won’t, but not is rarely contracted with other parts of speech; when a sentence beginning «I am not …» undergoes an interrogative inversion, contraction is to one of two irregular forms Aren’t I …? (standard) or Ain’t I …? (dialectical), both being far more common than uncontracted Am not I …? (rare and stilted) or Am I not …?
let us	let’s	informal, as in «Let’s do this.»
I am	I’m	informal, as in «I’m here.»
are	-‘re	informal; we’re /wɪər/ or /wɛər/ is, in most cases, pronounced differently from were /wɜr/.
does	-‘s	informal, as in «What’s he do there every day?»
is	informal, as in «He’s driving right now.»
has	informal, as in «She’s been here before.»
have	-‘ve	informal, as in «I’ve never done this before.»
had	-‘d	informal, e.g. «He’d already left.» or «We’d better go.»
did	informal, as in «Where’d she go?»
would	informal, as in «We’d get in trouble if we broke the door.»
will	-‘ll	informal, as in «they’ll call you later.»
shall	informal, as in «I’ll call you later.»
of	o’-	standard in some fixed compounds,[Note 1] as in three o’clock, cat o’ nine tails, jack-o’-lantern, will-o’-wisp, man o’ war, run-o’-the-mill (but mother-o’-pearl is borderline); informal otherwise, as in «cup o’ coffee,» «barrel o’ monkeys,» «Land o’ Goshen»
of the
it was	’twas	archaic, except in stock uses such as ‘Twas the night before Christmas
them	’em	informal, partially from hem, the original dative and accusative of they[2][3]
you	y’-	2nd person pronoun (you) has plurality marked in some varieties of English (e.g. Southern U.S.) by combining with e.g. all, which is then usually contracted to y’all — in which case it likely is standard[Note 2]
about	’bout	’bout is informal, e.g. I’ll come by ’bout noon.
because	’cause	’cause is very informal, e.g. Why did you do it? Just ’cause.

Contraction is a type of elision, simplifying pronunciation through reducing (dropping or shortening) sounds occurring to a word group.

In subject–auxiliary inversion, the contracted negative forms behave as if they were auxiliaries themselves, changing place with the subject. For example, the interrogative form of He won’t go is Won’t he go?, whereas the uncontracted equivalent is Will he not go?, with not following the subject.

Chinese[edit]

The Old Chinese writing system (oracle bone script and bronzeware script) is well suited for the (almost) one-to-one correspondence between morpheme and glyph. Contractions, in which one glyph represents two or more morphemes, are a notable exception to this rule. About twenty or so are noted to exist by traditional philologists, and are known as jiāncí (兼詞, lit. ‘concurrent words’), while more words have been proposed to be contractions by recent scholars, based on recent reconstructions of Old Chinese phonology, epigraphic evidence, and syntactic considerations. For example, 非 [fēi] has been proposed to be a contraction of 不 (bù) + 唯/隹 (wéi/zhuī). These contractions are not generally graphically evident, nor is there a general rule for how a character representing a contraction might be formed. As a result, the identification of a character as a contraction, as well as the word(s) that are proposed to have been contracted, are sometimes disputed.

As vernacular Chinese dialects use sets of function words that differ considerably from Classical Chinese, almost all classical contractions listed below are now archaic and have disappeared from everyday use. However, modern contractions have evolved from these new vernacular function words. Modern contractions appear in all the major modern dialect groups. For example, 别 (bié) ‘don’t’ in Standard Mandarin is a contraction of 不要 (bùyào), while 覅 (fiào) ‘don’t’ in Shanghainese is a contraction of 勿要 (wù yào), as is apparent graphically. Similarly, in Northeast Mandarin 甭 (béng) ‘needn’t’ is both a phonological and graphical contraction of 不用 (bùyòng). Finally, Cantonese contracts 乜嘢 (mat1 ye5)^[4] ‘what?’ to 咩 (me1).

Table of Classical Chinese contractions

Full form[5]	Transliteration[6]	Contraction[5]	Transliteration[6]	Notes[5]
之乎	tjə ga	諸	tjᴀ	In some rarer cases 諸 can also be contraction for 有之乎. 諸 can be used on its own with the meaning of «all, the class of», as in 諸侯 «the feudal lords.»
若之何	njᴀ tjə gaj	奈何	najs gaj
[於之]note	ʔa tjə	焉	ʔrjan	於之 is never used; only 焉.
之焉	tjə ʔrjan	旃	tjan	Rare.
[于之]note	wja tjə	爰	wjan	Rare. The prepositions 於, 于, and 乎 are of different origin, but used interchangeably (except that 乎 can also be used as a final question particle).
[如之]note	nja tjə	然	njan
[曰之]note	wjot tjə	云	wjən
不之	pjə tjə	弗	pjət
毋之	mja tjə	勿	mjət	弗 and 勿 were originally not contractions, but were reanalyzed as contractions in the Warring States period.
而已	njə ljəʔ	耳	njəʔ
胡不	ga pjə	盍	gap	胡 is a variant of 何.
也乎	ljᴀjʔ ga	與	ljaʔ	Also written 歟.
也乎	ljᴀjʔ ga	邪	zjᴀ	Also written 耶. Probably a dialectal variant of 與.
不乎	pjə ga	夫	pja	夫 has many other meanings.

Note: The particles 爰, 焉, 云, and 然 ending in [-j[a/ə]n] behave as the grammatical equivalents of a verb (or coverb) followed by 之 ‘him; her; it (third person object)’ or a similar demonstrative pronoun in the object position. In fact, 于/於 ‘(is) in; at’, 曰 ‘say’, and 如 ‘resemble’ are never followed by 之 ‘(third person object)’ or 此 ‘(near demonstrative)’ in pre-Qin texts. Instead, the respective ‘contractions’ 爰/焉, 云, and 然 are always used in their place. Nevertheless, no known object pronoun is phonologically appropriate to serve as the hypothetical pronoun that had undergone contraction. Hence, many authorities do not consider them to be true contractions. As an alternative explanation for their origin, Pulleyblank proposed that the [-n] ending is derived from a Sino-Tibetan aspect marker which later took on anaphoric character.^[7]

Dutch[edit]

Some of the contractions in standard Dutch:

Full form	Contracted	Translation	Note
des	‘s	of	Genitive form of the Dutch article de «the»
een	‘n	a, an
haar	d’r	her
hem	‘m	him
het	‘t	it the
ik	‘k	I
mijn	m’n	my
zijn	z’n	his
zo een	zo’n	such a

Informal Belgian Dutch utilizes a wide range of non-standard contractions, such as, for example, «hoe’s’t» (from «hoe is het?» — how are you?), «hij’s d’r» (from «hij is daar» — he’s there), «w’ebbe’ goe’ g’ete'» (from «we hebben goed gegeten» — we had eaten well) and «wa’s da’?» (from «wat is dat?» — what is that?. Some of these contractions:

Full form	Contracted	Translation	Note
there
dat	da’	that
dat is	da’s	that is
dat ik	da’k	that I
ge	g’	you
is	‘s	is
wat	wa’	what
we	w’	we
ze	z’	she

French[edit]

The French language has a variety of contractions, similar to English but mandatory, as in C’est la vie («That’s life»), where c’est stands for ce + est («that is»). The formation of these contractions is called elision.

In general, any monosyllabic word ending in e caduc (schwa) will contract if the following word begins with a vowel, h or y (as h is silent and absorbed by the sound of the succeeding vowel; y sounds like i). In addition to ce → c’- (demonstrative pronoun «that»), these words are que → qu’- (conjunction, relative pronoun, or interrogative pronoun «that»), ne → n’- («not»), se → s’- («himself», «herself», «itself», «oneself» before a verb), je → j’- («I»), me → m’- («me» before a verb), te → t’- (informal singular «you» before a verb), le or la → l’- («the»; or «he», «she», «it» before a verb or after an imperative verb and before the word y or en), and de → d’- («of»). Unlike with English contractions, however, these contractions are mandatory: one would never say (or write) *ce est or *que elle.

Moi («me») and toi (informal «you») mandatorily contract to m’- and t’- respectively after an imperative verb and before the word y or en.

It is also mandatory to avoid the repetition of a sound when the conjunction si («if») is followed by il («he», «it») or ils («they»), which begin with the same vowel sound i: *si il → s’il («if it», if he»); *si ils → s’ils («if they»).

Certain prepositions are also mandatorily merged with masculine and plural direct articles: au for à le, aux for à les, du for de le, and des for de les. However, the contraction of cela (demonstrative pronoun «that») to ça is optional and informal.

In informal speech, a personal pronoun may sometimes be contracted onto a following verb. For example, je ne sais pas (IPA: [ʒənəsɛpa], «I don’t know») may be pronounced roughly chais pas (IPA: [ʃɛpa]), with the ne being completely elided and the [ʒ] of je being mixed with the [s] of sais.^{[original research?]} It is also common in informal contexts to contract tu to t’- before a vowel, e.g., t’as mangé for tu as mangé.

Hebrew[edit]

In Modern Hebrew, the prepositional prefixes -בְּ /bə-/ ‘in’ and -לְ /lə-/ ‘to’ contract with the definite article prefix -ה (/ha-/) to form the prefixes -ב /ba/ ‘in the’ and -ל /la/ ‘to the’. In colloquial Israeli Hebrew, the preposition את (/ʔet/), which indicates a definite direct object, and the definite article prefix -ה (/ha-/) are often contracted to ‘ת (/ta-/) when the former immediately precedes the latter. Thus ראיתי את הכלב (/ʁaˈʔiti ʔet haˈkelev/, «I saw the dog») may become ראיתי ת’כלב (/ʁaˈʔiti taˈkelev/).

Italian[edit]

In Italian, prepositions merge with direct articles in predictable ways. The prepositions a, da, di, in, su, con and per combine with the various forms of the definite article, namely il, lo, la, l’, i, gli, gl’, and le.

	il	lo	la	l’	i	gli	(gl’)	le
a	al	allo	alla	all’	ai	agli	(agl’)	alle
da	dal	dallo	dalla	dall’	dai	dagli	(dagl’)	dalle
di	del	dello	della	dell’	dei	degli	(degl’)	delle
in	nel	nello	nella	nell’	nei	negli	(negl’)	nelle
su	sul	sullo	sulla	sull’	sui	sugli	(sugl’)	sulle
con	col	(collo)	(colla)	(coll’)	coi	(cogli)	(cogl’)	(colle)
per	(pel)	(pello)	(pella)	(pell’)	(pei)	(pegli)	(pegl’)	(pelle)

• Contractions with a, da, di, in, and su are mandatory, but those with con and per are optional.
• Words in parentheses are no longer very commonly used. However, there’s a difference between pel and pei, which are old-fashioned, and the other contractions of per, which are frankly obsolete. Col and coi are still common; collo, colla, cogli and colle are nowadays rare in the written language, but common in speaking.
• Formerly, gl’ was often used before words beginning with i, however it is no longer in very common (written) use.

The words ci and è (form of essere, to be) and the words vi and è are contracted into c’è and v’è (both meaning «there is»).

• «C’è / V’è un problema» – There is a problem

The words dove and come are contracted with any word that begins with e, deleting the -e of the principal word, as in «Com’era bello!» – «How handsome he / it was!», «Dov’è il tuo amico?» – «Where’s your friend?» The same is often true of other words of similar form, e.g. quale.

The direct object pronouns «lo» and «la» may also contract to form «l'» with a form of «avere», such as «L’ho comprato» — «I have bought it», or «L’abbiamo vista» — «We have seen her».^[8]

Spanish[edit]

Spanish has two mandatory phonetic contractions between prepositions and articles: al (to the) for a el, and del (of the) for de el (not to be confused with a él, meaning to him, and de él, meaning his or, more literally, of him).

Other contractions were common in writing until the 17th century, the most usual being de + personal and demonstrative pronouns: destas for de estas (of these, fem.), daquel for de aquel (of that, masc.), dél for de él (of him) etc.; and the feminine article before words beginning with a-: l’alma for la alma, now el alma (the soul). Several sets of demonstrative pronouns originated as contractions of aquí (here) + pronoun, or pronoun + otro/a (other): aqueste, aqueso, estotro etc. The modern aquel (that, masc.) is the only survivor of the first pattern; the personal pronouns nosotros (we) and vosotros (pl. you) are remnants of the second. In medieval texts, unstressed words very often appear contracted: todol for todo el (all the, masc.), ques for que es (which is); etc. including with common words, like d’ome (d’home/d’homme) instead de ome (home/homme), and so on.

Though not strictly a contraction, a special form is used when combining con with mí, ti, or sí, which is written as conmigo for *con mí (with me), contigo for *con ti (with you sing.), consigo for *con sí (with himself/herself/itself/themselves (themself).)

Finally, one can hear^{[clarification needed]} pa’ for para, deriving as pa’l for para el, but these forms are only considered appropriate in informal speech.

Portuguese[edit]

In Portuguese, contractions are common and much more numerous than those in Spanish. Several prepositions regularly contract with certain articles and pronouns. For instance, de (of) and por (by; formerly per) combine with the definite articles o and a (masculine and feminine forms of «the» respectively), producing do, da (of the), pelo, pela (by the). The preposition de contracts with the pronouns ele and ela (he, she), producing dele, dela (his, her). In addition, some verb forms contract with enclitic object pronouns: e.g., the verb amar (to love) combines with the pronoun a (her), giving amá-la (to love her).

Another contraction in Portuguese that is similar to English ones is the combination of the pronoun da with words starting in a, resulting in changing the first letter a for an apostrophe and joining both words. Examples: Estrela d’alva (A popular phrase to refer to Venus that means «Alb star», as a reference to its brightness) ; Caixa d’água (water tank).

German[edit]

In informal, spoken German prepositional phrases, one can often merge the preposition and the article; for example, von dem becomes vom, zu dem becomes zum, or an das becomes ans. Some of these are so common that they are mandatory. In informal speech, aufm for auf dem, unterm for unter dem, etc. are also used, but would be considered to be incorrect if written, except maybe in quoted direct speech, in appropriate context and style.

The pronoun es often contracts to ‘s (usually written with the apostrophe) in certain contexts. For example, the greeting Wie geht es? is usually encountered in the contracted form Wie geht’s?.

Local languages in German-speaking areas[edit]

Regional dialects of German, and various local languages that usually were already used long before today’s Standard German was created, do use contractions usually more frequently than German, but varying widely between different local languages. The informally spoken German contractions are observed almost everywhere, most often accompanied by additional ones, such as in den becoming in’n (sometimes im) or haben wir becoming hamwer, hammor, hemmer, or hamma depending on local intonation preferences. Bavarian German features several more contractions such as gesund sind wir becoming xund samma, which are schematically applied to all word or combinations of similar sound. (One must remember, however, that German wir exists alongside Bavarian mir, or mia, with the same meaning.) The Munich-born footballer Franz Beckenbauer has as his catchphrase «Schau mer mal» («Schauen wir einmal» — in English «We shall see.»). A book about his career had as its title the slightly longer version of the phrase, «Schau’n Mer Mal».

Such features are found in all central and southern language regions. A sample from Berlin: Sag einmal, Meister, kann man hier einmal hinein? is spoken as Samma, Meesta, kamma hier ma rin?

Several West Central German dialects along the Rhine River have built contraction patterns involving long phrases and entire sentences. In speech, words are often concatenated, and frequently the process of «liaison» is used. So, [Dat] kriegst Du nicht may become Kressenit, or Lass mich gehen, habe ich gesagt may become Lomejon haschjesaat.

Mostly, there are no binding orthographies for local dialects of German, hence writing is left to a great extent to authors and their publishers. Outside quotations, at least, they usually pay little attention to print more than the most commonly spoken contractions, so as not to degrade their readability. The use of apostrophes to indicate omissions is a varying and considerably less frequent process than in English-language publications.

Indonesian[edit]

In standard Indonesian, there are no contractions applied, although Indonesian contractions exist in Indonesian slang. Many of these contractions are terima kasih to makasih (thank you), kenapa to napa (why), nggak to gak (not), and sebentar to tar (a moment).

Norwegian[edit]

The use of contractions is not allowed in any form of standard Norwegian spelling; however, it is fairly common to shorten or contract words in spoken language. Yet, the commonness varies from dialect to dialect and from sociolect to sociolect—it depends on the formality etc. of the setting. Some common, and quite drastic, contractions found in Norwegian speech are «jakke» for «jeg har ikke», meaning «I do not have» and «dække» for «det er ikke», meaning «there is not». The most frequently used of these contractions—usually consisting of two or three words contracted into one word, contain short, common and often monosyllabic words like jeg, du, deg, det, har or ikke. The use of the apostrophe (‘) is much less common than in English, but is sometimes used in contractions to show where letters have been dropped.

In extreme cases, long, entire sentences may be written as one word. An example of this is «Det ordner seg av seg selv» in standard written Bokmål, meaning «It will sort itself out» could become «dånesæsæsjæl» (note the letters Å and Æ, and the word «sjæl», as an eye dialect spelling of selv). R-dropping, being present in the example, is especially common in speech in many areas of Norway^[which?], but plays out in different ways, as does elision of word-final phonemes like /ə/.

Because of the many dialects of Norwegian and their widespread use it is often difficult to distinguish between non-standard writing of standard Norwegian and eye dialect spelling. It is almost universally true that these spellings try to convey the way each word is pronounced, but it is rare to see language written that does not adhere to at least some of the rules of the official orthography. Reasons for this include words spelled unphonemically, ignorance of conventional spelling rules, or adaptation for better transcription of that dialect’s phonemes.

Latin[edit]

Latin contains several examples of contractions. One such case is preserved in the verb nolo (I am unwilling/do not want), which was formed by a contraction of non volo (volo meaning «I want»). Similarly this is observed in the first person plural and third person plural forms (nolumus and nolunt respectively).

Japanese[edit]

Some contractions in rapid speech include ～っす (-ssu) for です (desu) and すいません (suimasen) for すみません (sumimasen). では (dewa) is often contracted to じゃ (ja). In certain grammatical contexts the particle の (no) is contracted to simply ん (n).

When used after verbs ending in the conjunctive form ～て (-te), certain auxiliary verbs and their derivations are often abbreviated. Examples:

Original form	Transliteration	Contraction	Transliteration
～ている／～ていた／～ています／etc.	-te iru / -te ita / -te imasu / etc.	～てる／～てた／～てます／etc.	-te ru / -te ta / -te masu / etc.
～ていく／～ていった／etc.*	-te iku / -te itta / etc.*	～てく／～てった／etc.*	-te ku / -te tta / etc.*
～ておく／～ておいた／～ておきます／etc.	-te oku / -te oita / -te okimasu / etc.	～とく／～といた／～ときます／etc.	-toku / -toita / -tokimasu / etc.
～てしまう／～てしまった／～てしまいます／etc.	-te shimau / -te shimatta / -te shimaimasu / etc.	～ちゃう／～ちゃった／～ちゃいます／etc.	-chau / -chatta / -chaimasu / etc.
～でしまう／～でしまった／～でしまいます／etc.	-de shimau / -de shimatta / -de shimaimasu / etc.	～じゃう／～じゃった／～じゃいます／etc.	-jau / -jatta / -jaimasu / etc.
～ては	-te wa	～ちゃ	-cha
～では	-de wa	～じゃ	-ja
～なくては	-nakute wa	～なくちゃ	-nakucha

* this abbreviation is never used in the polite conjugation, to avoid the resultant ambiguity between an abbreviated ikimasu (go) and the verb kimasu (come).

The ending ～なければ (-nakereba) can be contracted to ～なきゃ (-nakya) when it is used to indicate obligation. It is often used without an auxiliary, e.g., 行かなきゃ（いけない） (ikanakya (ikenai)) «I have to go.»

Other times, contractions are made to create new words or to give added or altered meaning:

• The word 何か (nanika) «something» is contracted to なんか (nanka) to make a colloquial word with a meaning along the lines of «sort of,» but that can be used with almost no meaning. Its usage is as a filler word is similar to English «like.»
• じゃない (ja nai) «is not» is contracted to じゃん (jan), which is used at the end of statements to show the speaker’s belief or opinion, often when it is contrary to that of the listener, e.g., いいじゃん！ (ii jan!) «What, it’s fine!»
• The commonly used particle-verb phrase という (to iu) is often contracted to ～って／～て／～っつー (-tte/-te/-ttsū) to give a more informal or noncommittal feeling.
• といえば (to ieba), the conditional form of という (to iu) mentioned above, is contracted to ～ってば (-tte ba) to show the speaker’s annoyance at the listener’s failure to listen to, remember, or heed what the speaker has said, e.g., もういいってば！ (mō ii tte ba!), «I already told you I don’t want to talk about it anymore!».
• The common words だ (da) and です (desu) are older contractions that originate from である (de aru) and でございます (de gozaimasu). These are fully integrated into the language now, and are not generally thought of as contractions; however in formal writing (e.g., literature, news articles, or technical/scientific writing), である (de aru) is used in place of だ (da).
• The first-person singular pronoun 私 is pronounced わたくし (watakushi) in very formal speech, but commonly contracted to わたし(watashi) in less formal speech, and further clipped in specifically younger women’s speech to あたし (atashi).

Various dialects of Japanese also use their own specific contractions that are often unintelligible to speakers of other dialects.

Polish[edit]

In the Polish language pronouns have contracted forms that are more prevalent in their colloquial usage. Examples are go and mu. The non-contracted forms are jego (unless it is used as a possessive pronoun) and jemu, respectively. The clitic -ń, which stands for niego (him) as in dlań (dla niego), is more common in literature. The non-contracted forms are generally used as a means to accentuate.^[9]

Uyghur[edit]

Uyghur, a Turkic language spoken in Central Asia, includes some verbal suffixes that are actually contracted forms of compound verbs (serial verbs). For instance, sëtip alidu (sell-manage, «manage to sell») is usually written and pronounced sëtivaldu, with the two words forming a contraction and the [p] leniting into a [v] or [w].^{[original research?]}

Filipino/Tagalog[edit]

In Filipino, most contractions need other words to be contracted correctly. Only words that end with vowels can make a contraction with words like «at» and «ay.» In this chart, the «@» represents any vowel.

Full form	Contracted	Notes
~@ at	~@’t
~@ ay	~@’y
~@ ng	~@’n	Informal. as in «Isa’n libo»
~@ ang	~@’ng

See also[edit]

• Apostrophe
• Blend
• Clipping (morphology)
• Contractions of negated auxiliary verbs in English
• Elision
• List of common English usage misconceptions
• Poetic contraction
• Synalepha
• Syncope (phonetics)

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

What are contractions?

A contraction is a word made by shortening and combining two words. Words like can’t (can + not), don’t (do + not), and I’ve (I + have) are all contractions.

People use contractions in both speaking and writing. They’re so common that movies and books often try to make characters seem old-fashioned or strange by having them never use contractions. This is a little silly because English speakers have been using contractions for centuries—although not always the same ones we use today.

Writing contractions

All contractions include a punctuation mark that looks like this:

This is an apostrophe. Knowing where to put the apostrophe can seem tricky, but there’s a pretty simple rule that works with every contraction. Remember how we said contractions are made of two words that have been shortened? The apostrophe replaces any letters that are in the original words, but that aren’t in the contraction.

For instance, the contraction couldn’t means could not. As you can see, the o in not isn’t in the word couldn’t. The apostrophe goes in its place, right between the n and t.

Let’s look at another example. You’ll means you will. This contraction is missing two letters from the word will: w and i. The apostrophe goes where these missing letters belong: between the u and the first l.

In some parts of the United States, you can address a group of people by using a special contraction for you + all. It’s written below—without the apostrophe. Click the spot where the apostrophe should be.

Common contractions

In English, there are a fairly small number of contractions, and they’re all made out of common words. Here are some of the contractions you’ll see the most:

You might have noticed that the word won’t is a little different from the other contractions. It means will not, even though the word will isn’t there. This is because won’t is based on a much older form of the word will. Even though the word changed, the contraction stayed the same!

Writing with contractions

If anyone tells you that you should never use contractions in writing, they’re wrong. It’s perfectly OK to use contractions in most writing, including newspapers, fiction, and instructions. In fact, using contractions can make your writing simpler and easier to read.

However, if you’re writing an academic paper or anything else that’s formal, you may want to avoid contractions. If you’re writing for school, it might be a good idea to ask your teacher if contractions are OK.

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Take a look at the following sentences:

I’m learning how to code.

I’ll get a software developer job.

Learning how to code doesn’t have to cost you money.

The words I’m, I’ll and doesn’t are called contractions.

In this article, you’ll learn all about contractions – what they are, when and where you’ll most likely come across them, when and when not to use them. Finally you’ll see some of the most common contractions used in the English language.

Let’s get started!

What are contractions?

Contractions, also known as ‘short forms’, are shortened words.

Specifically, a contraction is when two words are shortened in form and are put together to form one new word.

For example, you and are can be combined to create a shorter word, you’re.

When two words are combined, certain letters will disappear. You can lose just one letter or more, depending on the contraction.

When you combine those two words and the letter(s) disappear, an apostrophe (’) will take their place.

The missing, original letters get replaced by the apostrophe to show the place where the missing letters should be. Those letters will not appear in the contraction (as they’ve been replaced by the apostrophe).

For example, take the word isn't. This contraction combines the words is and not. When those two get paired together, the letter o disappears. An apostrophe now takes its place to show where the missing letter was.

Another example is when you and will get combined to form you'll. Now two letters disappear,w and i, and the apostrophe fills that space of two missing letters.

When do you use contractions?

We use contractions every day in both speech and writing.

You’ll hear them from your friends, family, and on TV. You’ll see them in novels, non-fiction books, newspapers, instruction manuals, blog posts, learning material, and much more. There are a couple in this very paragraph, and I use them throughout this article.

They are informal and casual, since they give your writing a more friendly, light, accessible, and approachable tone.

Contractions can make the reader feel like you are talking directly to them and having a conversation. It helps make your writing appear uncomplicated for everyone to understand and make sense of.

Because contractions are shorter, it also means that they take up less space. Because of that, you’ll often see them in advertisements where space is valuable.

In a nutshell, you can comfortably use contractions in more informal writing and on relaxed occasions.

When to avoid using contractions

It’s best to avoid using contractions when you want to maintain a more serious and formal tone in your writing.

For example, skip using them in academic research papers, important business presentations, or in any situation where informal writing or speech would not make much sense.

Common contractions

Below are some of the most widely used and common contractions you’ll encounter when speaking and writing in English.

Common Contractions ending in -ll

Contractions ending in -ll include the word will. The w and i letters get dropped.

Contracted	Uncontracted
I’ll	I + will
She’ll	She + will
It’ll	It + will
We’ll	We + will
You’ll	You + will
They’ll	They + will
Who’ll	Who + will
That’ll	That + will
There’ll	There + will
What’ll	What + will
When’ll	When + will
Where’ll	Where + will
How’ll	How + will

Common Contractions ending in -re

Contractions ending in -re include the word are. The letter a gets dropped.

Contracted	Uncontracted
We’re	We + are
You’re	You + are
They’re	You + are
Who’re	Who + are
What’re	What + are
When’re	When + are
Where’re	Where + are
Why’re	Why + are
How’re	How + are

Common Contractions ending in -s

Contractions ending in -s include either the word is or has.

For example:

• He is going = He’s going
• It has gone = It’s gone.

The letter i or the letters h and a, respectively, get dropped.

Contracted	Uncontracted
He’s	He + is / He + has
She’s	She + is / She + has
It’s	It + is / It + has
Who’s	Who + is / Who + has
There’s	There + is / There + has
Thats’s	That + is / That + has
What’s	What + is
When’s	When + is
Where’s	Where + is
Why’s	Why + is
How’s	How + is

What about let's ? That is a bit different. let's comes from let + us.

Common Contractions ending in -ve

Contractions ending in -ve include the word have. The letters h and a get dropped.

Contracted	Uncontracted
I’ve	I + have
You’ve	You + have
We’ve	We + have
They’ve	They + have
Could’ve	Could + have
Would’ve	Would + have
Should’ve	Should + have
Must’ve	Must + have
Might’ve	Might + have
Who’ve	Who + have
What’ve	What + have
When’ve	When + have
Where’ve	Where + have
Why’ve	Why + have
How’ve	How + have

Common Contractions ending in -d

Contractions ending in -d include either the word had or would.

Some examples with the word had:

• I'd better go now = I had better go now
• I wish I'd never left = I wish I had never left.

Some examples with the word would:

• I'd rather not go there = I would rather not go there
• I'd like something to drink please = I would like something to drink please.

Contracted	Uncontracted
I’d	I + had / I + would
She’d	She + had / She + would
We’d	We + had / We + would
They’d	They + had / They + would
Who’d	Who + had / Who + would
That’d	That + had / That + would
What’d	What + had / What + would
There’d	There + had / There + would
When’d	When + had / When + would
Where’d	Where + had / Where + would
Why’d	Why + had / Why + would
How’d	How + had / How + would

Common Contractions ending in -m

Contractions ending in -m,include the word am.

The letter a gets dropped.

Contracted	Uncontracted
I’m	I + am

Negative contractions

Negative contractions are those that end in -nt.

You achieve this by adding the word not to a verb, making it negative.

In this case,the letter o gets dropped.

Contracted	Uncontracted
Can’t	Can + not
Hadn’t	Had + not
Hasn’t	Has + not
Haven’t	Have + not
Didn’t	Did + not
Doesn’t	Does + not
Don’t	Do + not
Daren’t	Dare + not
Couldn’t	Could + not
Wouldn’t	Would + not
Shouldn’t	Should + not
Mustn’t	Must + not
Mightn’t	Might + not
Oughtn’t	Ought + not
Needn’t	Need + not
Wasn’t	Was+ not
Isn’t	Is+ not
Aren’t	Are + not
Weren’t	Were + not
Shan’t	Shall + not

A word that is a little different and an exception to what has been shown so far is won’t – it comes from will + not = won’t.

will does not turn into willn’t. In fact the word «will» does not appear in the contraction at all. Just think of it as an irregular contraction (like how we have irregular verbs).

Common mistakes with contractions

A couple of contractions commonly cause confusion and people often use them in the wrong way — you’ll even see native English speakers make these mistakes.

These contractions sound exactly the same with other words, so these mistakes commonly occur in writing.

You’re and Your

You’re is a contraction, a combination of the words you and are.

For example, You’re learning how to code or You’re doing great!.

Your is a possesive pronoun, it is used to indicate that something is owned by/belongs to someone.

For example, Your cat is so cuddly! or Your cooking always tastes so good.

Your doing great makes no sense since it doesn’t indicate that something belongs to someone. You’re doing great does, since it indicates action and verbs are used for that.

If you get confused and don’t know which to use, read it out to yourself as you are and see if it sounds right.

Your are cat is so cuddly! doesn’t make sense or sound right, for example.

It’s and Its

It’s is a contraction – a combinations of it and is or has.

For example, It’s raining outside or It’s been great for me so far, I’m really enjoying it here.

Its is a possesive pronoun. Its shows possession.

For example, Don’t judge a book by its cover or The cat is in its sleeping basket.

Similarly to the example from the previous section, if you’re confused use the verbs is or has in your sentence and check to see if it makes sense to add the apostrophe/make it a contraction: Don’t judge a book by it is cover doesn’t make sense, so you use the possessive «its» with no apostrophe.

It is raining outside makes sense, so you now know that you can use an apostrophe.

They’re, Their, and There

All three of these words sound the same.

They’re is a contraction. They and are were combined.

For example,They’re going away for the holiday season or They’re buying a house together.

Does the sentence sound right when you use they are? Then use they’re.

Their shows possesion.

For example,Their dog bit me last night or I don’t like their attitude.

Finally, There indicates a place, a location.

For example,I wish I was there instead or I’m never going there again.

Conclusion

And there you have it!

This article gave an overview of contractions and how to use them in both spoken and written English.

You saw some of the most common ones used and some frequent mistakes made when using them.

Thanks for reading!

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Contractions are formed when words are shortened by omitting one or more letters, which are most often replaced with an apostrophe. Contractions most commonly occur when two words that commonly appear next to each other in a sentence are combined into a new, singular word. Less commonly (predominantly in informal speech and writing), we can also contract single words into shorter forms, or we can even combine more than two words into a single contraction.

Contracting two words

Two-word contractions are by far the most common, but we cannot simply contract any two adjacent words. Instead, there are certain patterns dictating when and how a pair of words will be combined. Most of the time, it is the second word in the group that is shortened, which is known as an enclitic. Much less commonly, the first word used in a contraction has one or more letters replaced by an apostrophe; the shortened form of this first word is known as a proclitic, which we’ll look at separately further on.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the apostrophe marks the letters that are left out of the contracted word; it does not mark the space that was between the words:

• “This plan does’nt make any sense.” (incorrect)
• “This plan does’n’t make any sense.” (incorrect)
• “This plan doesn’t make any sense.” (correct)

Contracting forms of be

The verb be is what’s known as a linking verb, which connects the subject of a sentence to an adjective that describes it or another noun that renames it, and it is also used as an auxiliary verb to form the continuous tense of other verbs. Because of how common and ubiquitous the verb is, it is very commonly contracted with the subject of its clause; it can also contract with the question words who, what, where, when, why, and how, though this is slightly less formal.

Note, however, that we only contract the present simple tense forms of the verb—is, am, and are. While we technically can contract the past simple tense forms (was and were), both have the same endings as the present-tense forms is and are, respectively. Because of this, it is generally assumed that contracted be verbs are always in the present tense.

Let’s look at how is, am, and are are contracted, as well as some example sentences.

Be conjugation	Contracted form	Examples sentences
is (used for third-person singular subjects)	’s (apostrophe replaces the vowel i-; pronounced /-z/ except after T, in which case it is pronounced /-s/)	“Jonathan’s coming over later.” “I think she’s pretty happy with the results.” “He’s a bit of a grouch, huh?” “I can’t believe it’s still raining outside!” “How’s your project coming, Billy?” “When’s the next train?”
am (used for first-person singular subjects—only contracts with the word I)	’m (apostrophe replaces the vowel a-)	“I’m a pretty easy-going guy.” “I’m going to the park later, if you want to come with me.” “You know the reason why I’m angry!”
are (used for second-person singular subjects, and first-, second-, and third-person plural subjects)	’re (apostrophe replaces the vowel a-)	“You’re being so annoying!” “I think we’re going to be late.” “They’re just jealous of your success.” “Who’re you taking to the dance?” “What’re we going to bring to the dinner party?”

It’s also worth mentioning that we do not end a sentence with a contracted is, am, or are. For instance:

• “Do you know where dad is?”
• “Do you know where dad’s?”

• “I wonder where they are.”
• “I wonder where they’re.”

Finally, we can also contract is with the adverb so. However, this is very informal, and it is generally only used in responses comparing something to what another speaker has said, as in:

• Speaker A: “Sorry, we’re running late!”
• Speaker B: “That’s OK, so’s Jeff.”

• Speaker A: “Your outfit is really cute today!”
• Speaker B: “So’s yours!”

it’s vs. its

A common mistake is to use an apostrophe with the word its when we want to indicate possession, instead of when writing a contraction of it is.

We usually express possession in writing by adding ’s to the end of a noun, as in Mary’s, John’s, the council’s, the dog’s, etc. (As a matter of fact, this possessive ’s is actually a contraction as well, stemming from the Old English suffix “-es”; however, this “-es” ending fell out of use, and we generally think of the possessive ’s as a distinct syntactic and grammatical construct, rather than a contraction.)

Curiously, the possessive form for the personal pronoun it does not have an apostrophe, just an S—its. However, the possessive form was originally spelled it’s, with the apostrophe. This was dropped in the 1800s, most likely due to the established prevalence of the contraction it is.

In any case, we can only use ’s with it when forming a contraction of it is. If we write its, we are indicating gender-neutral possession for an object, animal, group, etc.

Let’s look at a couple examples just to see the difference more clearly:

• “I’m really glad it’s starting to get warmer; I hate the wintertime!”
• “I’m really glad its starting to get warmer; I hate the wintertime!”

• “The corporation recently revised its hiring policy.”
• “The corporation recently revised it’s hiring policy.”

they’re, there, and their

Similar to the issue with it’s vs. its, the contraction they’re (they are) is very commonly confused with the words their and there. The main issue is that all three have the same pronunciation—/ðɛər/.

Again, we simply have to consider what we mean compared to what we’re trying to write. If we are using the plural personal pronoun they and the verb are, then we have to use the contraction they’re; if we are indicating direction or location, we use the adverb/pronoun there; and if we’re saying that something belongs to a group of people, we use the possessive determiner their. Here’s a handy way of remembering the three different spellings: they’re comes from two words because it has an apostrophe in the middle, while there contains the word here, another adverb/pronoun of direction and location (and we use their if it is not functioning like one of these other two).

For example:

• “I think they’re (they are) going to be here soon.”
• “We parked the car over there (direction/location) on the hill.”
• “I don’t believe in giving students standardized tests, because their (possession) scores don’t necessarily reflect their ability to learn.”

Contracting other auxiliary verbs

In addition to the three forms of be, there are four other auxiliary verbs that can also be contracted as enclitics: have (and its conjugations has and had), did, will, and would.

When we contract these four auxiliaries, we use an apostrophe to replace all of the letters leading up to the last consonant sound. We generally only contract these verbs with personal pronouns (except for has, which can attach to people’s names) or question words.

Auxiliary verb	Contracted form	Examples sentences
have (forms the present perfect tense with any subject except the third-person singular)	’ve (apostrophe replaces the letters ha-)	“I’ve been thinking about what you said.” “We think we’ve found a pretty elegant solution.” “I know you’ve been working around the clock.” “Why’ve they been avoiding us?”
has (forms the present perfect tense, but only with third-person singular subjects)	’s (apostrophe replaces the letters ha-)	“She’s been rather quiet lately.” “Johnny’s applied to be a police officer.” “It’s been about a week since I last heard from them.” “Do you know why he’s fallen behind in his studies?”
had (forms the past perfect tense for all pronouns; does not contract with question words to avoid confusion with did)	’d (apostrophe replaces the letters ha-)	“We’d dreamed about living in Ireland for years before we finally moved here.” “I’d been feeling a little unwell, so I took Monday off from work.” “He’d already prepared a lecture for the class when he found out that it had been canceled.” “She’d never been prouder of herself before that moment.”
did (forms questions and expresses negative actions about the past; can only contract with questions words, except for when)	’d (apostrophe replaces the letters di-)	“Who’d you ask to cover your shift on Monday?” “What’d you think of the movie?” “Why’d we have to drive all the way out here?” “How’d you do on the test?” “Ah, my keys! Where’d you find them?”
will (used to form future tenses, to express willingness or ability, to make requests or offers, to complete conditional sentences, to express likelihood in the immediate present, or to issue commands)	’ll (apostrophe replaces the letters wi-)	“He’ll call you in the morning.” “If you wash the dishes, I’ll take out the trash.” “What’ll they do with all that money?” “Two tickets, two medium sodas, and one large popcorn—that’ll be $30, please.”
would (past-tense version of will; does not contract with question words to avoid confusion with did)	’d (apostrophe replaces the letters woul-)	“He told you he’d call you in the morning.” “I’d like to go to the amusement park for my birthday.” “I thought she’d have been here by now.”

It’s also worth noting that we do not contract have, has, or had when they are functioning as main verbs (meaning “to possess”). For instance:

• “I have class in the morning.”
• “I’ve class in the morning.”

• “We had lots of pets when we were growing up.”
• “We’d lots of pets when we were growing up.”

• “I think he has a problem with how the class is being conducted.”
• “I think he’s a problem with how the class is being conducted.”

(Note that some dialects, especially in British English, do contract have as a main verb with the subject of the sentence, but this is rather informal.)

should’ve, would’ve, could’ve vs. should of, would of, could of

Contracted enclitics create speech sounds that are often not simply shortened versions of the full word’s pronunciation. Because modern speech relies so heavily on contractions, this can occasionally lead to confusion as to what the proper spelling should be.

By far the most common source of confusion is when have is contracted as ’ve and attached to a word ending in a consonant, most commonly should, would, and could. This results in ’ve being pronounced /əv/ (what’s known as a syllabic consonant), which sounds the same as of when it is unstressed in speech. Because of this, it is a common mistake to think that should’ve, would’ve, and could’ve are instead spelled should of, would of, and could of.

It’s important to be aware that should of, would of, and could of are not correct in English, whether informal, colloquial, or otherwise; they literally do not mean anything. Be careful to always spell the shortened forms as the contractions should’ve, would’ve, and could’ve, and, if you are spelling them out in their entirety, should have, would have, and could have. These are the only correct spellings.

Finally, note that this also applies to the contractions might’ve and must’ve; the ’ve in these is also pronounced like of, but might of and must of are always incorrect.

Contracting not with auxiliary verbs

The adverb not is used to express negative actions, so, unlike the words we’ve looked at so far, it only contracts with verbs, not personal pronouns or question words. However, we can only do this with auxiliary verbs, not main verbs.

Another difference from the words we’ve looked at so far is that when we contract not, we don’t omit all of the letters leading up to the final consonant; instead, we only omit -o- and replace it with an apostrophe. What’s especially unusual about contractions of not is that sometimes the first word is altered as well. There’s no specific pattern to help us gauge when (or how) these extra alterations will occur, so we have to memorize them:

Primary auxiliary verbs

• is + not = isn’t
• are + not = aren’t
• was + not = wasn’t
• were + not = weren’t

• have + not = haven’t
• has + not = hasn’t
• had + not = hadn’t

• do + not = don’t
• does + not = doesn’t
• did + not = didn’t

While we do not usually contract not with am, there are some varieties of English (such as Irish and Scottish English) in which this contraction (amn’t) is still used informally.

However, certain dialects of American English use a modified version of amn’t—the highly informal ain’t. We’ll look at this more in depth a little further on, along with other informal contractions.

Modal auxiliary verbs

• can + not = cannot = can’t (In addition to omitting -o-, we also omit the final -n from can.)
• could + not = couldn’t

• will + not = won’t (The -ill from will is replaced with an -o- before taking the contracted -n’t. This strange spelling convention is due to the evolution of the word will from Old English in the 16th and 17th centuries.)
• would + not = wouldn’t

• shall + not = shan’t (In addition to omitting -o-, we also omit -ll from shall, though this contraction is considered old-fashioned in modern English.)
• should + not = shouldn’t

• might + not = mightn’t (uncommon)
• must + not = mustn’t

Note that we do not contract not with the modal verb may.

let’s

There are a few contractions that have become the standard form in modern English—that is, the uncontracted form is no longer used (or sounds rather old-fashioned).

One of these is the two-word contraction let’s, which is a contraction of the words let us. This contracted form is only used when expressing a suggestion, as in, “Let’s go to the beach.” It sounds awkward and overly formal to say “Let us go to the beach.”

However, because let’s is solely associated with this meaning, there are other instances in which let us would be the only correct choice. This occurs when let means “to allow or give permission” or “to cause or make.” For example:

• “I hope mom will let us go to the movies.” (correct)
• “I hope mom will let’s go to the movies.” (incorrect)

• “Please let us know the results.” (correct)
• “Please let’s know the results.” (incorrect)

let’s vs. lets

Finally, we have to be careful not to confuse the contraction let’s with lets, which is the conjugation of the verb for third-person singular subjects.

One thing to remember is that let’s is only used in imperative sentences, the sentence structure used to issue commands or, in this case, suggestions. Imperative sentences do not have subjects (the person or thing performing the action of a verb); instead, they simply use the bare infinitive of a verb on its own, as it is being used to command or instruct another person. Lets, on the other hand, can only be used in “normal” (non-imperative) sentences that do have subjects, because it is dependent on the grammatical class of the subject used in the clause.

For instance:

• “Let’s go get something to eat!” (correct)
• “Lets go get something to eat!” (incorrect)

• “This new technology lets people talk to each other from across the globe.” (correct)
• “This new technology let’s people talk to each other from across the globe.” (incorrect)

Proclitics

When we form contractions from two words, we almost always omit one or more letters from the second one, as we’ve seen in the preceding examples. There are a few instances, though, in which only the first word has one or more letters replaced by an apostrophe. The shortened form of the first word is known as a proclitic.

The most common contraction that uses a proclitic in everyday speech and writing is the very informal y’all, which is used primarily in Southern dialects of American English:

• you + all = y’all

While common in colloquial speech and writing, this contraction should not be used in formal, academic, or professional writing.

Another informal proclitic contraction is c’mon, a combination of the words come + on. When we say “come on” aloud, we tend to reduce the first vowel sound of -o- in come to an unstressed schwa (/ə/). Because this sound is so minute and almost irrelevant in the word pair, it is replaced with an apostrophe (the non-functional silent E is simply omitted). However, this contraction is much less common in written English, and, like y’all, should be avoided in formal writing.

’tis, ’twas, ’twere, ’twill, ’twould

The word it can also be contracted as a proclitic (especially when followed by auxiliary verbs beginning with W), with the vowel I being replaced by an apostrophe. These terms have fallen out of use in modern English, and they generally only appear in poetic or old-fashioned writing. For instance:

• ’tis = it + is
• ’twas = it + was
• ’twere = it + were
• ’twill = it + will
• ’twould = it + would

Be careful, though: when using an apostrophe at the beginning of a word, remember not to use a single opening quotation mark ( ‘ ) instead of an apostrophe ( ’ ) by mistake.

• ’Twas a night we would not soon forget. (correct)
• ‘Twas a night we would not soon forget. (incorrect)

Informal two-word contractions

It is very common in spoken English to create vocal “shortcuts” to help make words easier to pronounce. One of the ways this is achieved is by blending together two normally distinct words into a single informal contraction. Some of these informal contractions have become so prevalent in speech that they have begun to be represented in writing, as well.

In addition to the proclitic contractions y’all and c’mon that we looked at earlier, there are many other pairs of words that are informally contracted into new single words.

ain’t

As we said previously, we do not contract am and not as we do with the other conjugations of the verb be—amn’t is not acceptable (except in colloquial uses in certain dialects, such as Irish English).

However, there is a very common, but very informal, variant of amn’t that is used in rural dialects of American English: ain’t. In fact, it is so informal that, in addition to representing am + not, ain’t can also be used to represent are not, is not, have not, and has not. For example:

• “I ain’t (am not) joking, kids—get down off that shed!”
• “Look, I know you ain’t (are not) stupid. I’m just asking you to be careful.”
• “From what I heard, he ain’t (is not) cut out for this job.”
• “We ain’t (have not) been to the Grand Canyon before!”
• “All I can tell you is she ain’t (has not) been doing her fair share of the work.”

Despite its prevalence in American English, ain’t is considered extremely informal. While you may be fine using it in conversational speech or writing, you should avoid it in any formal situations in which proper grammar, spelling, and pronunciation are required.

Other informal two-word contractions

Note that, for most of these, we do not use an apostrophe to represent the missing letters; instead, they often act like distinct singular words, often with unique spellings that represent the pronunciation more than the original two words. Additionally, some of these contractions are only used in specific contexts. Because of how colloquial and informal these are, there are many possible contractions that can be created, as well as many permutations of those that are known. We’ll just look at some of the most common examples:

Words being contracted	Contraction	Spelling and pronunciation differences	Usage
don’t + know	dunno (/dʌˈnoʊ/)	Because T appears directly between two /n/ sounds, it becomes slightly difficult to enunciate clearly and is often left out in speech. However, when this happens, the /oʊ/ sound of don’t also becomes arduous, and so it is flattened into a short U sound (as in cut).	Dunno is generally only used with the personal pronoun I. While dunno can simply replace don’t know in a sentence, it can also be used without I to form one-word answers. For example: “I dunno what you’re talking about.” Speaker A: “Where did Lisa go?” Speaker B: “Dunno.”
give + me	gimme (/ˈgɪmi/)	The final -ve of give is not a very strong consonant sound, and it tends to be glided over or omitted altogether when adjacent to the m- of me. In writing, we double the middle consonant to avoid creating a word that looks like it rhymes with time.	We almost exclusively use this contraction when give me is an imperative (command), and, because of its informal nature, it creates a directness not found in the original word pair that can make it seem rather impolite. For example: “Gimme a minute! I haven’t even turned the computer on yet!” “Hey, gimme a bite of your sandwich!”
going + to	gonna (/gʌˈnə/)	The word to is often unstressed in speech, so it becomes elided into the schwa sound (/ə/) represented by -a. When to comes after going, we often soften the /-iŋ/ sound from “-ing” into a flat /-n/ sound by dropping the “-i-” and “-g;” we then double the remaining N to avoid a word that looks like it rhymes with persona.	We can only use this contraction when to is functioning as a particle introducing an infinitive verb, as in, “I’m gonna go to the park,” or, “Are you gonna be finished soon?” We cannot use gonna when to is functioning as a preposition. For example: “I’m going to go to the park later.” “I’m gonna go to the park later.” “I’m going to the park later.” “I’m gonna the park later.”
got + to	gotta (/ˈɡɑtə/)	The word got is commonly used in the phrase have got to to add emphasis to the expression have to (meaning “must”). It’s so common, in fact, that got to has evolved in spoken English into the contraction gotta, with to being essentially reduced down to just the schwa sound (/ə/)—though we keep the two Ts to keep the contraction from looking like it rhymes with quota.	Got is so common in have got to that, in colloquial speech, have is often omitted altogether. Just note that, as informal as gotta already is, it is much more informal for it to be used without have. Finally, note that when have (or has for the third-person singular) is present alongside gotta, it is almost always contracted with the subject of the clause (as we saw earlier in this section). For example: “I can’t come over tonight. I(’ve) gotta study for the test.” “Hey, we(’ve) gotta get out of here!”
got + you (ya)	gotcha (/ˈgɑʧə/)	The word you is sometimes colloquially spelled ya to reflect the quick, offhand pronunciation it often takes in everyday speech; it is this form that attaches to got in this contraction. The slide from the /t/ sound of T to the /j/ sound represented by Y creates a sound similar to /ʧ/ (as in chat), hence the spelling change from y- to -ch-.	This contraction is actually a shortening of the longer phrase “I have got you,” usually meaning “I understand you” (though it can also mean “I’ve got a hold on you”). In many cases it can stand alone without a subject, but in some instances it is still preceded by I, we, or they (and even have, sometimes). For example: Speaker A: “I need you to be here at 8 AM sharp.” Speaker B: “Gotcha.” Speaker A: “Did you understand the instructions?” Speaker B: “Yeah, yeah, I gotcha.” “Don’t worry, miss, you can let go of the rope, we’ve gotcha.”
kind + of	kinda (/ˈkaɪndə/)	The word of is so unstressed in this combination that it is completely replaced by an -a attached to kind to represent the schwa sound (/ə/) it has become.	This informal contraction can be used anywhere kind of is used. For example: “I usually hate romantic comedies, but I kinda want to see this one.” Speaker A: “Did you enjoy your trip?” Speaker B: “Kinda. It rained the whole time.”
let + me	lemme (/ˈlɛmi/)	The final -t of let tends to be softened and glided over in speech, and when it is adjacent to the m- of me, it can be omitted altogether. Once again, we double the middle consonant to avoid creating a “long vowel” sound, which would result in a word that looks like it rhymes with theme.	Similar to give me/gimme, lemme is a contraction of the imperative let me, so it may come across as impolite—though not in every circumstance. For example: “Man, lemme tell you: that was the toughest job I’ve ever done.” “Hey, lemme see your phone for a minute.”
sort + of	sorta (/ˈsɔrtə/)	The word of is so unstressed that it is completely replaced by an -a to represent the unstressed /ə/ sound, exactly the same as in the contraction kinda. In fact, kinda and sorta are synonymous.	This informal contraction can be used anywhere sort of is used. For example: “I usually hate romantic comedies, but I sorta want to see this one.” Speaker A: “Did you enjoy your trip?” Speaker B: “Sorta. It rained the whole time.”
want + to	wanna (/ˈwɑnə/)	The double /t/ sound that occurs in want to is a bit cumbersome in quick, casual speech, leading to this informal contraction in which they are elided completely. In addition, the function word to is so unstressed in this combination that it is completely replaced by an -a to represent the schwa sound (/ə/).	This contraction can simply be used in place of want to in its normal usage. However, it is also used to stand in for the phrase “Do you want to” in informal questions. For example: “Hey, wanna go grab a bite to eat?” “I don’t wanna go home yet!” “I think they wanna see how things turn out first.”

Contracting single words

While contractions are most commonly combinations of two words, they can also consist of single words reduced to shorter forms by omitting letters. There are only a few formally accepted contractions formed from “everyday” words; these simply omit a consonant between two vowels so that the first and last syllables glide from one to the next:

• madam = ma’am
• never-do-well = ne’er-do-well
• over = o’er (generally only used in poetic writing)
• ever = e’er (generally only used in poetic writing)

Appellations

The most common single-word contractions are appellations, which are additional words added to a person’s name. These may be used to indicate respect for a person (known as honorifics) or to indicate a person’s profession, royalty, rank, etc. (known as titles). Many appellations are shortened (some always so) by removing letters from the middle or end of the word; however, unlike most contractions, we do this by placing a period at the end of the word* rather than using an apostrophe in place of the omitted letters. Also unlike normal contractions, we pronounce these as whole words in speech, not as abbreviations. For example:

• Capt. (short for Captain)
• Cmdr. (short for Commander)
• Col. (short for Colonel)
• Cpl. (short for Corporal)
• Dr. (short for Doctor)
• Esq. (short for Esquire)
• Fr. (short for Father, a priest in the Roman Catholic or Anglican churches)
• Hon. (short for Honorable)
• Jr. (short for Junior)
• Lt. (short for Lieutenant)
• Mr. (short for Mister)
• Mrs. (originally a shortened form of Mistress; now only the contraction is used)
• Prof. (short for Professor)
• Rev. (short for Reverend)
• Sr. (short for Senior)
• St. (short for Saint)
• Sgt. (short for Sergeant)

(*In American English, we always put a period after an abbreviated appellation. In British English, however, this period [called a full stop in BrE] is usually not included, especially if the first and last letter of the contraction are the same as the full word.)

It’s worth noting that all of these are abbreviations, but there is not a complete consensus as to whether they may actually be considered contractions or not. Some sources state that only those with letters omitted from the middle count as contractions (since that is more common for contractions in general), while other sources don’t include any of these when discussing contractions. However, since we are including informal contractions such as ’bout or o’ (which we’ll look at next) that have letters removed from the beginning or end of the word, we’ve decided to take a more inclusive approach.

Informal one-word contractions

English speakers also tend to form many informal one-word contractions, most often by shortening the beginning or end of words; when represented in writing, the omitted letters are usually replaced with an apostrophe. (Just note that these are not considered acceptable in anything except conversational speech or writing.)

For example:

Original word	Contraction	Example sentences
about	’bout	“I don’t know what you’re talking ’bout.”
around	’round	“We’ll be coming ’round a little later.”
of	o’	“Wow, that’s a big bowl o’ cereal!”
suppose	s’pose	“I s’pose that could work.”
them	’em	“We told ’em not to get involved!”

Words ending in “-ing” can also be informally contracted by omitting “-g,” reflecting a change in the pronunciation of the ending from /-ɪŋ/ to /-ɪn/, which is slightly easier to say in quick, casual speech. There are too many possible examples to include here, so we’ll just consider a few that we may commonly encounter in conversational speech or writing:

• comin’ (coming)
• feelin’ (feeling)
• goin’ (going)
• lookin’ (looking)
• makin’ (making)
• tryin’ (trying)

till vs. until vs. ’til

One single-word contraction that is prevalent, especially in American English, is ’til—a contraction of the preposition until.

However, this is actually an unnecessary contraction. The confusion is caused by the word till, which is synonymous to (but actually pre-dates) until. Because of the seemingly extraneous “l” in till, many people presume it to be a misspelling, so instead they shorten it to til and add an apostrophe where they think un- should be.

While it is not necessarily “incorrect” to use ’til instead of until or till, be aware that it is a nonstandard spelling and is not preferred by dictionaries. If you are writing in an academic or professional context, it is safer to stick with until or, if need be, till.

Contracting three words

Least common of all contractions are those formed from three words. In fact, there are only two standard three-word contractions that aren’t considered informal or colloquial:

Original words	Contraction	Example sentence
jack-of-the-lantern	jack-o’-lantern	“My favorite part of Halloween is carving the jack-o’-lantern with my dad.”
of + the + clock	o’clock	“It’s 4 o’clock in the morning! Please go back to bed.”

All other three-word contractions are very informal and would not be considered acceptable in anything but conversational English. Additionally, some of these may be more common in certain dialects than others. In many of these, each of the three words retains one or more of their letters, so we use multiple apostrophes in the place of those that are missing:

Original word	Contraction	Example sentence
could + not + have	couldn’t’ve	“Boy, that interview couldn’t’ve have gone any worse.”
he + would + have	he’d’ve	“I don’t see how he’d’ve known about it already.”
I + would + have	I’d’ve	“That’s not how I’d’ve done it.”
it + was + not	’twasn’t	“I’ve been trying to get more exercise, so ’twasn’t a problem walking home.”
it + will + not	’twon’t	“The show should be starting soon; ’twon’t be much longer now.”
it + would + not	’twouldn’t	“I’d like to get a new TV, but ’twouldn’t bother me to just keep using our old one.”
ought + not + have	oughtn’t’ve	“You oughtn’t’ve come back here, Jonathan.”
she + would + have	she’d’ve	“I know she’d’ve preferred to stay home.”
should + not + have	shouldn’t’ve	“We shouldn’t’ve gotten mixed up in all this.”
they + would + have	they’d’ve	“They’d’ve gotten away with it if those kids hadn’t come snooping around!”
we + would + have	we’d’ve	“I thought we’d’ve been finished by now!”
what + are + you	whatcha	“Whatcha thinking about?”
who + would + have	who’d’ve	“Who’d’ve thought it could be so simple?”
would + not + have	wouldn’t’ve	“Apparently they used some fancy new special effects in the movie, but I wouldn’t’ve noticed the difference.”
you + would + have	you’d’ve	“You’d’ve been proud of her, Mary. She really outdid herself this time.”

Using contractions in formal writing

On a final note, it is worth mentioning that contractions, no matter how accepted or standard, are sometimes seen as undesirable in more formal or professional writing. Contractions are a reflection of shortcuts we take in spoken English, and, as such, they can be considered by some to indicate casual writing. While there are a few exceptions (o’clock and Mrs., for instance, are now the only acceptable forms), if you are writing something very formal (or want to create a more formal tone in your writing), it is best to avoid contractions wherever possible.

Chapter Sub-sections

• Enclitics

Contracted words or contractions are used every day in spoken and written English. Help your child keep them straight with our parents’ guide, including complete listings of the common contractions children learn to spell in Year 2 and throughout Key Stage 2.