Contributor: Beth Price. Lesson ID: 10083
You can make your writing more natural-sounding by scrunching words together, can't you? You'll learn how to make contractions -- one word out of two! Won't you? I've put this lesson together for you!
YOU'RE supposed to create contractions when YOU'D like to shorten two words to make one. WOULDN'T you like to learn more about how contractions can spice up your writing? YOU'LL wish YOU'D have learned about contractions a long time ago!
Do you ever shorten a word when you speak or write?
Think about people's names. Names get shortened all the time.
Here are some examples:
Like those names, we can take certain word phrases and shorten them from two words to one word by making a contraction.
How do we make a contraction?
Easy! We push two words together. The first word of the phrase stays the same, but one or more letters in the second word of the phrase are squeezed out and replaced with an apostrophe (').
Look at some examples:
you are youare you're
The word "you" stays the same, the letter "a" in the second word is squeezed out and replaced by an apostrophe, leaving the re.
I have Ihave I've
The word "I" stays the same, the letters "ha" in the second word are squeezed out and replaced by an apostrophe, leaving the ve.
we are weare we're
The word "we" stays the same, the letter "a" in the second word is squeezed out and replaced by an apostrophe, leaving the re.
you would youwould you'd
The word "you" stays the same, the letters "woul" are squeezed out and replaced by an apostrophe, leaving the d.
Continue on to the Got It? section to practice writing contractions on your own.