Shortened version of a word

By Robby

If you are new here please read this first.

VOCAB – this is a short version of ‘vocabulary’ and while it’s not something you’ll be using on a very regular basis, it’s always good to know that you can say things like: “I want to build my English vocab” or “I just added another useful English phrase to my vocab!”

LIMO – short for ‘limousine’. Next time around when you see one, you can nudge your friend and tell him – “Hey man, look at that cool limo!”

CELEB – I’m pretty sure you knew this one, but I had to put it on the list to make it complete! It’s obviously short for ‘celebrity’ and I wouldn’t be surprised if 20 years down the line people wouldn’t remember the original word at all!

PIC – this is a very handy way of referring to a picture or a photograph. “Hold on a sec, I’ll take a pic and then we’re good to go!”

SEC – this is how you can shorten the word ‘second’. As a matter of fact, I used this word in the sample sentence above, and here’s a couple more sample phrases: “Wait a sec!” or “Be back in a sec!”

DECAF – this is a short version of ‘decaffeinated coffee’ and it will definitely come in handy when putting in an order in a coffee shop late in the evening – “I’d like a large decaf latte, please!”

DETOX – this is a popular word in terms of dieting, and it refers to detoxification whereby you get your body rid of all sorts of toxins. ‘A detox diet’, for example, is a diet consisting mostly of juices, fresh salads and veggies and helps you get much healthier within a matter of days!

VEGGIE – is a short for ‘vegetable’ and is used all the time when people talk about health and balanced nutrition – “I’m eating lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and I’m feeling simply amazing!”

CARBS – carbohydrates. To be honest with you, I think the word ‘carbs’ has become so popular in the food industry that we don’t even have to wait for 20 years before everyone forgets the original word ‘carbohydrates’.

BI’S – biceps. TRI’S – triceps. QUADS – quadriceps (front part of your upper legs) HAMS – hamstrings (back of your upper legs) PECS – pectorals (chest muscles). DELTS – deltoids (shoulders). ABS – abdominal muscles. This is how you refer to your different body parts when you’re in a gym, and not only! You can use these body part names whenever you mention the respective body parts in daily conversations, and you can rest assured that you’ll be understood.

REP – a quick way of referring to a ‘representative’. ‘Rep’ is widely used in all industries – sales rep, trade union rep – and if you’re a sales rep, for example, you may want to start calling yourself a ‘sales rep’ rather than ‘sales representative’.

REP – another meaning of this word is ‘repetition’. If you’re serious into fitness and exercising, you’ll definitely know this one because it’s become an industry standard. You go to gym, pick up a workout program and start performing sets or reps according to your level and preparation.

PREP – now, guess what this short form of a word means? Well – it means ‘prepare’ or ‘preparation’! Typical phrases to learn – “Have you prepped up?” or “I’m all prepped up, we’re good to go!”

LINO – maybe this one is going to sound too technical, but believe me – there are times when you have to describe floor types such as carpet, wooden floor and also linoleum which is the full word for ‘lino’. A typical situation would be renting a house, so you’d better add this word onto your active vocab!

RADS – radiators. This is another DIY term for you, and believe me – your home heating is another one of those things that will come up during your house hunting efforts! “Are these rads old or new?” – you should ask this question when you’re in doubt of the effectiveness of the heating elements if they’re really worn and old-looking.

DOC – this is a how you refer to a ‘doctor’. “I have to visit my doc today, can I have a couple of hours off?” would be the ideal way of asking for some time off at your work so that you can visit a doctor. “Hello doc, nice to see you, how are you?” this is how you’d greet your doctor upon arrival.

MEDS – ‘medications’. “Please don’t forget to take your meds in the morning!” or “Have you taken your meds today?” would be a typical way of making sure your friend, child or a sibling has taken proper care of themselves according to their doc’s recommendations!

CERT – this is a shortened form of ‘certificate’, and you’ll definitely get to use this word when going through the educational system or when attaining new qualifications for your professional life.

PRO – this is a very popular shortening of a word, and it’s quite self-explanatory. It means ‘professional’, and you can simply stick this three letter word in front of other words to indicate professional level of the trade, profession and occupation in question: pro-designer, pro-builder, pro-bodybuilder.

CONGRATS – this word is also very self-explanatory; it basically means ‘congratulations’ and can be used whenever you’re congratulating someone with some sort of an achievement. “Congrats on your promotion, well done my friend!”

VID – short for ‘video’. Typical phrases – “Check out this vid!” or “Can you e-mail me a link to that crazy vid you showed me last week?”

INFO – well, well, well, I’m a real smart-arse, am I not? Of course you knew that ‘info’ is short for ‘information’! I just had to put this word on the list though because word shortening related info wouldn’t be complete without the word ‘info’!

SIS – this is how you can call your little sister. Well, you can still call her “sis” even if she’s older than you, it’s really up to you!

BRO – and this is how you call your brother, and not only your birth-brother. Any close friend of yours deserves being referred to as “bro”, and here’s how you can greet your best friend on the way to college “Hey bro, wassup?”

MIL – is a short for ‘million’, and here’s the most commonly used phrase containing this word: “Thanks a mil!” It’s a fairly common way of thanking someone for a small favor or service, and you’ll sound so much more native-like if you start using this phrase yourself!

SYNC – this English word shortening stands for ‘synchronize’ or ‘synchronization’. “Let’s sync our watches!” – would be something you’d hear in films where a group of agents are splitting up before the operation.

PROBS – “No probs!” obviously means “No problems!” and it’s a typical way you would respond to some request. “Can you please lift this bag up onto that shelf, please?” would be best met with the following response: “No probs!”

Robby 😉

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

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]

Shortening words is the process of cutting the beginning or end of a word from a longer word. It involves creating new words by omitting part of the original word but retaining the original meaning. Words are shortened for several reasons, including to save time or space.

Shortening Words: What it Entails

A shortened word is an abridged version of the complete word. Shortening words in a piece of work can be a great way to make it concise.

Shortened forms of words can be valuable, especially when you need to take notes down quickly.

Shortening often has a negative connotation. While it is okay to use shortened forms of words in informal writings, it is best to avoid them in professional and academic writings. Shortened words in professional contents can quickly become a crutch that creates a lack of clarity and understanding.

To shorten words, you need to be familiar with the roots of the words you are shortening. Understanding the meaning of root words will allow you to know where to begin. Make sure you check your spelling and grammar since it may be harder to read and understand shortened words if they aren’t obvious.

If the meaning of a word is not immediately apparent, you may want to look up the root word in a dictionary. It will make you understand what words you can use as the abridged version.

Commonly Shortened Words in English

Days of the week and months of the year: Mon., Tues., Wed., Jan., Feb.,

Unit of measurements: “cm” for centimer, “mm” for millimeter, “in” for inch.

Titles: “Prof” for Professor, “Mr.” for mister, “Mrs.” for mistress.

How to Shorten Words

Shortening words might be a contentious issue, but can also be valuable. Sometimes, going for a shortened version of a word is less complicated than systematically and impassionately going for the complete form.

Many people shorten words to save time and make it easier for the reader to understand and remember what they read. The four most common ways of shortening words are:

1. Cutting the beginning of the word

• Telephone – Phone
• University – Versity
• Raccoon – Coon
• Gator – Alligator
• Parachute – Chute
• Turnpike – Pike

2. Cutting the end of the word

• Rehabilitation – Rehab
• University – Uni
• Professor – Prof
• Application – App
• Introduction – Intro
• Laboratory – Lab
• Continued – Cont

3. Cutting the beginning and the end.

• Influenza – Flu
• Pyjamas – Jams
• Apollinaris – Polly
• Detective – Tec

4. Changing the spelling of the word.

• Vegetable/vegetarian – Veggie
• Christmas – Xmas
• Bicycle – Bike

How to Punctuate Shortened Words

While adding a period at the end of some shortened words is necessary, some are better left that way.

For example, the shortened version of continued is written as cont., while the shortened version of bicycle is written as bike, with no punctuation. Knowing the right scenarios to punctuate will do a lot of good in your writing.

For some writers, punctuating shortened words is an intent of style. They prefer the modern approach, which uses no full stop.

Others, however, prefer a more traditional approach that uses a full stop to indicate that the word is incomplete. These styles work in different scenarios, and it is essential to learn how.

Conclusion

A great way to make your writing concise is to shorten words. Shortening has a significant impact on the length of your word. With the help of punctuating short words, they are still understandable while retaining the meaning of what you’re saying.

In addition to learning how to shorten words, you need to know how to punctuate them correctly. Punctuating short words is often challenging as there are varying rules for what happens. However, the period helps readers understand that a word has been shortened.