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Contraction in English – Spoken English

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Contraction means to shorten a word or phrase by omitting one or more sounds or letters from it. The word so formed is also called a contraction. Contraction in English – Spoken English. This is very important section for spoken English. If you want to command over spoken English, you must make them your own. Discussed below are the various contractions used in spoken English. I hope you would love this post if you are a spoken English learners.

The apostrophe has two uses:
1. To show that we have made words shorter. We have contracted them.
2. To show that something belongs to someone, i.e. they possess it. (possession) Here are two examples.
• My dad’s car is red.
Here we hive only one dad but we have put on the letter’s’ because we have put an apostrophe. It shows that the car belongs to dad.
• “I’ll tell you that later,” he whispered.
I will has become I’ll, we have joined two words and missed out the letters WI and put in the apostrophe instead.
We use apostrophes because it can make our writing easier to read.
In the list below we are going to look at apostrophes for contracting words.

LIST OF CONTRACTION

Word	Contraction	Word	Contraction
Are not	aren’t	She had	She’d
Cannot	can’t	Should not	Shouldn’t
Could not	couldn’t	That is	That’s
Did not	didn’t	There is	There’s
Do not	don’t	They are	They’re
Does not	doesn’t	They have	They’ve
Had not	hadn’t	They will	They’ll
Have not	haven’t	They would	They’d
He is	he’s	They had	They’d
He has	he’s	Was not	Wasn’t
He will	he’ll	We are	We’re
He would	he’d	We have	We’ve
Here is	here’s	We will	We’ll
I am	I’m	We would	We’d
I have	I’ve	We had	We’d
I will	I’II	Were not	Weren’t
I would	I’d	What is	What’s
I had	I’d	Where is	Where’s
Is not	isn’t	Who is	Who’s
It is	it’s	Who will	Who’ll
It has	it’s	Will not	Won’t
It has	it’s	Would not	Wouldn’t
It will	it’ll	You are	You’re
Must not	mustn’t	You have	You’ve
She is	she’s	You will	You’ll
She has	she’s	You would	You’d
She will	she’ll	You had	You’d
She would	she’d

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Contraction in English – Spoken English

Let’s start with Let’s. Except for some set phrases (example: ‘Let us pray’) let us is almost always expressed as a contraction: Let’s.
Example:
• Let’s go!
It is almost always used to express an imperative, thus:
• Let’s do it!
However, sometimes it is used to express something like an admonition, thus:

• Let’s do what we ought to do.
Sometimes it is used to make suggestion, thus:
• Let’s keep this just between us.
The negative is ‘let’s not’, but you will also come across ‘don’t let’s’ .

That’s = That is

• That’s all = That is all
• That’s all I want = That is all I want
• That’s it = That is it
• That’s my son = That is my son
• That’s my child = That is my child
• That’s my daughter = That is my daughter
• That’s what I wanted to say = That is what I wanted to say
• That’s a good idea = That is a good idea

What’s = What is

• What’s going on = What is going on?
• What’s that? = What is that?
• What’s happening? = What is happening?
• What’s going to happen? = What is going to happen?

What’s = What has

• What’s been happening? = What has been happening?
• What’s been going on? = What has been going on?

it’s = it is

• It’s a man = It is a man
• It’s a woman = It is a woman
• It’s a boy = It is a boy
• It’s a girl = It is a girl
• It’s a good thing = It is a good thing
• It’s not a good thing = It is not a good thing
• It’s time to go = It is time to go
• It’s a good day to die = It is a good day to die
• It’s a good speech = It is a good speech
• It’s hot = It is hot
• It’s cold = It is cold
• It’s winter = It is winter
• It’s summer = It is summer

it’s = it has

• It’s been a good day = It has been a good day
• It’s been one of those days = It has been one of those days
• It’s been good = It has been good
• It’s been fun = It has been fun
• It’s been a wonderful life = It has been a wonderful life
• It’s been a trying time = It has been a trying time

there’s = there is

• There’s one = There is one
• There’s another = There is another
• There’s a red balloon = There is a red balloon
• There’s gold in those hills = There is gold in those hills
• Where there’s water there’s life = Where there is water there is life
• There’s a lot of water in the river = There is a lot of water in the river

NEGATIVE:
• There’s not a lot I can do about it.
• There isn’t much I can do about it.

IRREGULAR CONTRACTIONS:-

won’t = will not

Examples:
• I don’t want to do it, so I won’t do it.
• I won’t do it unless you make me do it.
• I won’t promise you anything.
• I won’t do anything.
• Why won’t you help me?
• It won’t work.
• He won’t work.
• She won’t work.
• They won’t work.
• We won’t work.

The Nots:

hasn’t = has not
isn’t = is not
don’t = do not
doesn’t = does not
won’t = will not
haven’t = have not
can’t = can not
wouldn’t = would not
shouldn’t = should not
couldn’t = could not
mustn’t = must not

Examples:
• He hasn’t been here in a long time.
• He isn’t here now.
• I don’t know when he will be here.
• He doesn’t know when he will get here.
• I won’t know until he gets here.
• I haven’t been told.
• I can’t find out.
• I wouldn’t tell you if I knew.
• I shouldn’t tell you.
• I couldn’t tell you if I wanted to.
• I mustn’t tell anyone.

I hope, this post will help you a lot in the process of leraning spoken English. It is frequently used while speaking. Don’t forget to share this post among your friends, facebook or whatsapp.