Contractions are used in spoken English and informal writing. A contraction is the shortened form of a word or group of words. An apostrophe is used to replace the letter or letters that are omitted. The following table shows the most common contractions.
| Full Form | Contracted Form |
|---|---|
| I am | I’m |
| I have | I’ve |
| I had | I’d |
| I would | I’d |
| I will | I’ll |
| you are | you’re |
| you have | you’ve |
| you had | you’d |
| you would | you’d |
| you will | you’ll |
| he is | he’s |
| he has | he’s |
| he had | he’d |
| he would | he’d |
| he will | he’ll |
| she is | she’s |
| she has | she’s |
| she had | she’d |
| she would | she’d |
| she will | she’ll |
| it is | it’s |
| it has | it’s |
| it had | it’d |
| it would | it’d |
| it will | it’ll |
| they are | they’re |
| they have | they’ve |
| they had | they’d |
| they would | they’d |
| they will | they’ll |
| am I not | aren’t I |
| are not | aren’t |
| cannot | can’t |
| could not | couldn’t |
| did not | didn’t |
| do not | don’t |
| does not | doesn’t |
| had not | hadn’t |
| has not | hasn’t |
| have not | haven’t |
| is not | isn’t |
| might not | mightn’t |
| must not | mustn’t |
| ought not | oughtn’t |
| shall not | shan’t |
| should not | shouldn’t |
| was not | wasn’t |
| were not | weren’t |
| will not | won’t |
| would not | wouldn’t |
| could have | could’ve |
| might have | might’ve |
| should have | should’ve |
| would have | would’ve |