Simple way to make Positive Contractions – Short Forms

Positive Contractions and Short Forms – Simple Chart

A Contraction is basically a short form of a word or words and the missing letter is then replaced with an apostrophe. These can be a verb, a modal verb or an auxiliary verb – briefly explained after the chart.

Contractions are used very often and mostly in informal everyday speech and writing but not really appropriate for formal speech or formal writing.

This table shows you how to make the short forms of 5 different verbs.

You can see the negated form of many commonly used verbs in one of my other posts.

Take a look.

	TO BE	WILL	WOULD	HAD	TO HAVE
I	I am I’m	I will I’ll	I would I’d	I had I’d	I have I’ve
You	you are you’re	you will you’ll	you would you’d	you had you’d	you have you’ve
He	he is he’s	he will he’ll	he would he’d	he had he’d	he hashe’s
She	she is she’s	she will she’ll	she would she’d	she had she’d	she has she’s
It	it is it’s	it will it’ll	it would it’d	it had it’d	it hasit’s
We	we are we’re	we will we’ll	we wouldwe’d	we had we’d	we have we’ve
They	they are they’re	they will they’ll	they would they’d	they had they’d	they had they’ve
That	that is that’s	that will that’ll	that wouldthat’d	that had that’d	that has that’s
There	there is there’s	there will there’ll	there wouldthere would’ve	there had there’d	there has there’s
Who	who is who’s	who will who’ll	who wouldwho’d	who hadwho’d	who has who’s
Why	why is why’s	why will why’ll	why wouldwhy’d	why had why’d	why have why’d

A Verb

• A word used to describe an action (eat), non-action (to be)
• They change in tense e.g.: I eat an apple (Simple Present) or I ate an apple (Simple Past)
• Shows what the subject or clause is doing
• They are both needed and indispensable in any sentence

Modal Auxiliary Verb

• A verb used to indicate modality (to express a person intention, mood – “would you go if you could”)
• A verb used with another verb to express tense or mood (she must go to bed early)
• They can change the meaning of other verbs in a sentence.
• A modal auxiliary verb expresses necessity, suggestions, requests, a piece of advice, a likelihood, or a possibility.
• There are 10 modal auxiliary verbs in English: could, can, will, would, may, might, shall, should, ought and must.
• Most can be reduced to their short form, as shown below.

Primary Auxiliary Verbs

• These are normally related to as “helping verbs”.
• They add functional meaning.
• They generally accompany a main verb to outline its tense.
• There are 3 primary auxiliary verbs: to do, to have and to be.