Properly use contractions

What are contractions?

They are shortened forms of a word or phrase, but more so of phrases. They are formed by omitting certain parts of words. The omitted parts are represented by an apostrophe.

Examples

Here are examples of those that we frequently use:

• I’m—I am…
• I’ll—I will…
• I’ve—I have…
• I’d—I would…
• He’d—He would…
• she’s—she has/she is…
• You’d—You would….
• It’s—It is/it has…
• They’re—They are….
• We’ll—We will….

How they are Formed?

Basically, they are formed in two ways.

The first way: an auxiliary verb is combined with the word not. The o in the word not is removed and replaced with an apostrophe.

An auxiliary verb is a verb placed before another verb to determine that verb’s voice, mood, tense, person or aspect. Examples of auxiliary verbs are:

can , would, do, have, should, is, has, shall, will, etc.

So, they are formed like this:

Can’t—can not.

Wouldn’t—would not.

Don’t—do not

Haven’t—have not

Shouldn’t—should not

Isn’t—is not

Hasn’t—has not

Shan’t—shall not (please take not of how this one is written. Don’t make the mistake of writing it as shalln’t!)

Won’t—will not (Note this one too. It is not willn’t!)

ain’t—I am not/is not/are not (ain’t is quite colloquial and is more of spoken than written)


Okay, let us now look at the second way of forming a contraction.

In the second method, a pronoun is used in conjunction with an auxiliary verb or a form of the verb to be. The pronouns in question are:

she, he, they, it, and I

In this case, then, they are formed as follows:

she’d—she would….

she’d’ve—she would have…

They’ve—they have…

He’ll—he will…

And sometimes, a noun may be used to form a contraction:

John’s a big boy. (John is a big boy)

But, in general, they formed by omitting certain letters and replacing them with an apostrophe:

O’clock—of the clock

Hallowe’en—halloweven

E’en—even

Let’s—let us

And in old English, it was a habit to use contractions. You will find some of these in Shakespeare’s poems. Shortened forms of words are in fact convenient for poetry as sometimes poets try to use a precise number of syllables in their poems:

answer’d—answered

O’er—over

Ne’er—never

However, a contraction is different from an abbreviation, clipped forms of longer words, and short hand.

Abbreviations are usually formed by dropping out a large amount of letters, and sometimes even inserting a letter or more that are not in the original expression. Furthermore, the missing elements are not represented by an apostrophe.

For example, the abbreviation Dr is formed by dropping out the letters octo; and the abbreviation e.g is formed by removing all the letters after e in example and replacing them with a g

It is nearly the same reason for clipped forms of words. In addition, clipped forms are words in their own right:

hippo—hippotatomus

phone--telephone

Though shorthand may employ apostrophes to represent the missing parts, they are formed from major clipping of words, and this clipping does not really follow any rule:

gov’t

Cont’d

Where and when to use them

They are more of spoken than written. In other words, they are colloquial expression. They are suited for speech but not for formal writing.

When you are writing business letters, as well as other formal writings, you should use them sparingly, or not at all.

However, when you are writing informal letters, use them as frequently as possible so that your letter sounds chatty and friendly.

They are being used more frequently in e-mails, text messages, and web articles. Since I don’t want you to get bored, I’ve employed a goodly number of 'em in this article. Hmm….

When you are writing the narrative of a story, it’s best that you do not use them anywhere else except in the dialogue, or the conversations of the characters. An exception is when you write in the first – person point of view. For an understanding of points-of-view, read this article:

Point-of-view of the short story

The Pesky Ones

They are contractions that are famous for causing problems, and you should watch out for these.

I will start with It’s , a short form for it is or it has. Why is it so much of a problem? This is simply because it is confused with the possessive form of the pronoun It, i.e. its.

We are used to the fact that possessive forms of nouns always end with an s which is either preceded or followed by an apostrophe. For example:

Larry’s apple.

Jane’s umbrella.

Charles’s books.

Charles’ books.

But interestingly, when it comes to the pronoun it, to indicate possession we simply say:

The dog is missing its collar.

We don’t insert the apostrophe before the s in this case. The problem is that our brains automatically insert the apostrophe. I actually typed: the dog is missing it’s collar, before I quickly changed!

The reason why we do not insert the inverted comma for this particular possessive pronoun is that we do need to differentiate it from the contraction it’s. Imagine the confusion there would be if this were not the case! We would not know when we are using it’s to indicate possession or when we are using it as a shortened form of it is or it has.

The dog has lost it’s collar, and it’s hurt. I will keep it because I don’t know it’s owner.

Therefore, we appropriately leave out the apostrophe in the possessive form its.

To minimize error, I would recommend the following:

• Use a computer text editor to type your work. It will automatically identify the wrong word use.
• Commit to memory this fact: A contraction always has an apostrophe in the place where the letters are missing. So if you are writing and you are wondering whether to use it’s or its, ask yourself if you are merely using a contraction or you want to indicate possession. If, the former, then insert an apostrophe; but for the latter, leave out the apostrophe.

The other pesky contraction is they’re, a short form of they are.

Again, the reason why this is so much of a problem is because it is often mistaken for their, which indicates possession.

Always carefully watch your wording when you are writing, and be sure to identify if you are using the contraction or the possessive form.

There is seriously no magic formula for avoiding such errors. The best to do is simply double check your work. If you do so, these pesky contractions won’t be so pesky anymore!

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