A contraction is a shortened version of two words. For example, "He is" can be shortened to "He's".

Use an apostrophe (‘) to connect the two words.

We cover all of the contractions in detail in the verb tense lessons.

Here is a list of all the contractions that we need to know.

1. Contractions with Be Verbs

Pronoun + be verb	Contraction
I am	I'm
You are	You're
We are	We're
It is	It's
He is	He's
She is	She's
They are	They're
That is	That's
There is	There's
Here is	Here's

2. Contractions with Question Words and Be Verbs

Question Word + be verb	Contraction
What is	What's
Who is	Who's
Where is	Where's
How is	How's

3. Contractions with Will and Pronouns/Question Words

Pronoun + will	Contractions
I will	I'll
You will	You'll
We will	We'll
He will	He'll
She will	She'll
They will	They'll
There will	There'll

4. Contractions with Would or Had and Pronouns

Pronoun + would	Contractions
I would / I had	I'd
You would / You had	You'd
We would / We had	We'd
He would / He had	He'd
She would / She had	She'd
They would / They had	They'd

Note: The contraction ‘d is used for both "had" or "would". If we look at the rest of sentence then we can tell which word is being used.

• I'd never been to China before last year. (=I had)
• She'd come if she could. (=She would)

5. Contractions with Have/Has and Pronouns

Pronoun + have/has	Contractions
I have	I've
You have	You've
We have	We've
He has	He's
She has	She's
They have	They've

6. There is a special contraction that is used a lot. "Let us" changes to "Let's".

7. Negative Contractions

There are many negative contractions and these are used a lot.

Long Form	Contraction
is not	isn't
are not	aren't
was not	wasn't
were not	weren't
do not	don't
does not	doesn't
did not	didn't
cannot	can't
will not	won't
could not	couldn't
would not	wouldn't
should not	shouldn't
have not	haven't
has not	hasn't
had not	hadn't

Note: When we have a negative sentence, sometimes there are two possible contractions that we can use. We can use either contraction or no contraction at all. It does not matter.

• He is not a good friend.
• He's not a good friend.
• He isn't a good friend.

All three sentences are the same.

Here are a few more rules about contractions.

1. We cannot use contractions as the last word of a sentence.

A) Is he tired?
B) Yes, he's. / Yes, he is.

2. Contractions are used for speaking and writing in a casual style like a note to a friend or in an online chatroom. Do not use them in formal writing.