Contraction

Concept: Positive Contraction

Definition:

1. A contraction is a shortened form of two words.
2. It consists of a pronoun and a helping verb or a verb and the word ‘not’.
3. A contraction includes an apostrophe (‘) followed by the letter ‘s’. The contraction ends with the apostrophe and letter (‘s).

Formation of Contraction

Contractions made by joining a pronoun and a verb is as follows:

Example:

• The contracted form of ‘he is’ is he’s.
• The contraction contains one pronoun, ‘he’, and a verb ‘is’.
• It includes an apostrophe and the letter ‘s’. The apostrophereplaces the missing letter ‘i’ of the word ‘is’.

We have already studied negative contractions. In this lesson, we will focus on positive contractions.

Positive Contraction

1. A positive contraction is formed by a pronoun and a verb.
2. It doesn’t include n’t at the end of the word.
3. A positive contraction expresses positive meaning within a sentence.

Example:

In both the sentences, the contractions are formed by combining two words; pronouns (we, they) and auxiliary verb (will, are).

Take a look at the list of contractions.

Look at the examples where we have used positive contractions:

Common Mistake:

Don’t get confused between ‘its’ and ‘it’s.

• It’s is the contracted form of ‘it is’.
• ‘Its’ is not a contracted form. It has a different meaning. We use ‘its’ to indicate something belongs to someone.

Example:

• It’s my car.
• Its my car.