When Contractions May Be Used

Contractions

Contractions are used in the English language to shorten phrases. This is done by removing letters in some words and then placing these shortened words together to form a new word.

When the auxiliary verbs do, have, be and some modal auxiliaries are put together with not, they can have either uncontracted or contracted forms. The table shows some examples.

Uncontracted phrase / Contracted phrase
do not / don’t
they will / they’ll
have not / haven’t
does not / doesn’t
should not / shouldn’t
must not / mustn’t
were not / weren’t
is not / isn’t
did not / didn’t

When contractions may be used

Contractions are used mainly in spoken English, but also occur in informal writing. More recently, it has become common to use contractions in some formal settings or situations, such as writing emails or notes.

Formal written English does not use contractions, but you may find contractions in fiction books and other texts.

With some uncontracted forms, there may be more than one contracted form available. The example shows the forms available for ‘have not’.

Sentence / Usage
I have not worked in Australia. / typical in writing
I haven’t worked in Australia. / typical in speaking
I’ve not worked in Australia. / also possible in speaking

Using contracted forms

Contracted forms can be used in various situations.

· After a pronoun:

I’ll see you on Monday.

· After short nouns:

The phone’s still ringing.

· After short adverbs such as ‘here’, ‘there’, ‘now’ and ‘how’:

Here’s your mail.

How’s it going?

There’s the boss.

Contracted forms and negatives

Consider this sentence.

The paper is not here.

There are two ways in which you can create the negative contraction.

· With a contracted verb:

The paper’s not here.

· With a contracted negative:

The paper isn’t here.

There are more examples below.

Contracted verb + full form of ‘not’ / Full form of verb + contracted negative
It’s not your problem. / It isn’t your problem.
He’s not been in the office this week. / He hasn’t been in the office this week.
They’re not very friendly. / They aren’t very friendly.
The car’s not available. / The car isn’t available.

Write down the uncontracted form of each contraction in the table.

Contracted form / Uncontracted form
wouldn’t
won’t
aren’t
didn’t
wasn’t
needn’t
shouldn’t
isn’t
weren’t
mustn’t
she’s
we’d
they’re
there’s
that’s
it’ll
they’ve
you’re
you’d