13/07/2020
What is a Contraction in Writing? (Includes 129 Examples)
A contraction is a literary device used to make your writing less formal and more conversational. Since contractions approximate the “sounds” of spoken words used in informal conversation, they’re interpreted in your reader’s minds as written language that’s more relaxed and easier to digest.
Language that’s formal or hard to process, such as that used in legal documents, almost never makes use of contractions, which is one of the reasons legalese can be so boring to read and process.
As a writer, particularly a nonfiction writer geared to a consumer audience, the use of contractions is a great technique to put your readers at ease by lowering potential barriers of communication, as if you were signaling through your writing that you’re a “friendly” person.
In technical terms, a contraction is a way to eliminate certain letters from words (or certain words from phrases), replacing them with an apostrophe to provide your reader with a visual cue of the omission — there are some exceptions where even the apostrophe itself is omitted!
In order to provide you with more tools for your author’s tool chest, I’ve compiled below a large list of contractions so that you don’t have to scour the Internet for useful examples. Hopefully you’ll find this collection to be a handy reference for your writing.
Here are 129 examples of contractions you can use, divided into the following 9 groups:
1-Contraction of Pronouns, 2-Contraction of Negatives, 3-Contraction of Verbs, 4-Contraction by Omission, 5-Contraction of Years, 6-Miscellaneous Contractions, 7-Single-Word Contractions, 8-Informal Contractions, 9-Contractions of Proper Nouns
| Pronoun | Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|---|
| I I I I I You You You You You He He He He He She She She She She It It It It It We We We We We They They They They They How How How How How That That That That That What What What What What When When When When When Where Where Where Where Where Who Who Who Who Who Why Why Why Why Why |
I’m I’ll I’d I’ve I’d You’re You’ll You’d You’ve You’d He’s He’ll He’d He’s He’d She’s She’ll She’d She’s She’d It’s It’ll It’d It’s It’d We’re We’ll We’d We’ve We’d They’re They’ll They’d They’ve They’d How’s How’ll How’d How’s How’d That’s That’ll That’d That’s That’d What’s What’ll What’d What’s What’d When’s When’ll When’d When’s When’d Where’s Where’ll Where’d Where’s Where’d Who’s Who’ll Who’d Who’s Who’d Why’s Why’ll Why’d Why’s Why’d |
I am I will I would I have I had You are You will You would You have You had He is He will He would He has He had She is She will She would She has She had It is It will It would It has It had We are We will We would We have We had They are They will They would They have They had How is How will How would How has How had That is That will That would That has That had What is What will What would What has What had When is When will When would When has When had Where is Where will Where would Where has Where had Who is Who will Who would Who has Who had Why is Why will Why would Why has Why had |
| Verb | Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|---|
| Is Are Was Were Have Has Had Will Would Do Does Did Can Could Should Might Must |
Isn’t Aren’t Wasn’t Weren’t Haven’t Hasn’t Hadn’t Won’t Wouldn’t Don’t Doesn’t Didn’t Can’t Couldn’t Shouldn’t Mightn’t Mustn’t |
Is not Are not Was not Were not Have not Has not Had not Will not Would not Do not Does not Did not Can not Could not Should not Might not Must not |
| Verb | Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|---|
| Could Might Must Should Would |
Could’ve Might’ve Must’ve Should’ve Would’ve |
Could have Might have Must have Should have Would have |
| Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|
| E’er ‘Cause Ma’am Jack o’lantern O’clock Ne’er O’er Run o’the mill |
Ever Because Madam Jack of the lantern Of the clock Never Over Run of the mill |
| Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|
| February ’69 | February 1969 |
| Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|
| Let’s Give’em Y’all |
Let us Give them You all |
7-Single-Word Contractions (no apostrophe):
| Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|
| Ad Flu Gator Oft |
Advertisement Influenza Alligator Often |
8-Informal Contractions (no apostrophe):
| Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|
| Bout Coulda Didja Dunno Gimme Gonna Gotcha Gotta Hafta Kinda Lotta Musta Oughta Outta Sorta Wassup Woulda |
About Could have Did you Don’t know Give me Going to Got you Have to Have to Kind of Lot of Must have Ought to Out of Sort of What is up Would have |
9-Contractions of Proper Nouns:
| Contracted | Uncontracted |
|---|---|
| Tom’s Susan’s Alex’ll Jane’d |
Tom is Susan has Alex will Jane would |
Some of these contractions may sound silly, and some are best used only when writing dialogue intended to accurately represent speech, but they all have their uses. If you’re not sure if a particular contraction is correct or appropriate, ask your editor for advice.
If you enjoyed this article and are in the process of writing a nonfiction book, be sure to check out my free nonfiction success guide, drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians. Simply click here to get instant access.
Ben
Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an author services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to just to generate additional leads for their businesses.
Here are some related posts I highly recommend:
How to Write a Compelling Book in 12 Steps: A Must-Read Guide for Nonfiction Authors
Write Your Own Book and Become an Expert: 11 Reasons Why You Should
How to Grow Your Business Writing a Nonfiction Book
How Long Does it Take to Write a Book to Help Grow Your Business?
Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning author of six books published through Harper Collins (New York) and Titan Publishing Group (London). He is also the publisher at Promontory Press, editor for multiple bestselling authors (including a NY Times bestseller), ghostwriter for CEOs and politicians and the founder of Cascadia Author Services, a boutique full-service firm that specializes in premium author services specifically designed for busy professionals. Our end-to-end services include writer coaching, ghostwriting, editing, proofing, cover design, book layout, eBook production, marketing, printing and distribution.
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