Pronoun Verb Contractions

What is a Contraction? 

• A contraction is one word made up of two words.  
• We do this to make things short and trim.  
• The first word usually stays the same. 

– I will à I’ll (the first word remained the same)  

• And in some cases, both the first word and the second word lose letters.  
• Shall not à Shan’t (Both words changed)  

• An apostrophe will fill the space of the missing letters.  

Examples  

Where only the second word changes 

• She is à She’s  
• They had à They’d  
• I am à I’m  
• Cannot à Can’t 
• Have not à Haven’t  
• Is not à Isn’t  

Where both the first- and second-word changes 

• Will not à Won’t 
• Shall not à Shan’t 
• Contractions are used in normal speech and informal writing (writing notes / writing to family and friends) 
• Don’t use them contractions in formal writing.  
• Use complete words. 

Example 

‘Cannot’ rather than ‘can’t’ 

Pronoun Verb Contractions 

Pronouns substitute proper and common nouns. 

We do this to avoid repetition. 

• E.g., The boy has lost his toy. He is crying.  

We use contractions with pronouns to make it even shorter. 

• E.g., The boy has lost his toy. He’s crying. 

How to identify them? 

• Keep an eye out for a pronoun. 
• If it is followed by an apostrophe and then the end of the verb, then it is a pronoun verb contraction. 
• The apostrophe replaced parts of the verb!  

Why do we use them? 

• We use pronouns to make sentences shorter and remove repetition. We don’t want to hear boy, boy, boy, repeated again and again, do we? 
• So, the second time we use ‘he’ 
• And instead of writing or saying: 
• “The boy’s crying”, we write “he’s crying”  

Examples 

• We are à We’re  
• They are à They’re  
• I am à I’m  
• She would à She’d  
• She had à She’s 
• I had à I’d  
• I would à I’d 
• I will à I’ll 
• It is à It’s 
• She has à She’s