Hi, I'm Ashley, and here's my friend Mia!
In this video, we will talk about contractions. Are you ready? Let's go!
We use so many words when we talk and write. We put those words together in sentences to
express complete thoughts like 'I am hungry' or 'he is tall'
or maybe 'she is my friend'. But when we speak, we don't always sound so formal, do we?
When we speak, we often combine words, like instead of saying "I am hungry",
we say "I'm hungry". Instead of "he is tall", we might say "he's tall", and we might say
"she's" instead of "she is" when we talk about that friend.
These word combinations are called contractions and because we say them, we can also write them.
A contraction is a combination of two words that omits or leaves out one or more letters,
and an apostrophe is a punctuation mark that we use to show where those letters are missing.
Let's take a look at some examples of contractions.
We often make contractions using the word will. Instead of "she will", we often say "she'll",
and instead of "he will", we'll say "he'll", and the contraction for "I will" is "I'll".
Do you see the apostrophe in those contractions? It's showing you where some letters are missing!
Let's take a closer look at how contractions are formed. We can start with "she will" and
then we subtract the W-I in will and then we add an apostrophe where the W and I used to be,
and that is how we make the contraction "she'll", like in the sentence "She'll be here any minute."
Many times, we make contractions with the word "not". For example, "is not" becomes "isn't".
What letter is missing where we now have an apostrophe? That's right, the letter O is missing.
What contraction do we make from the words "do" and "not", like "I do not like loud noises"?
That's right, we usually say "don't"! "I don't like loud noises."
Let's try one more with the word "not". How about "can not", like "I cannot wait for my birthday"?
You got it! "Can't" is the contraction we use, and it's true, I can't wait for my birthday!
There is one contraction that doesn't follow the rules. Look at the words "will" and "not" with me,
as in "I will not go to the game." The contraction for "will not" is actually
"won't". We say and write "I won't be able to go to the game."
There are many other contractions, like "he's" for "he is" and "I'm" for "I am",
"you're" for "you are", and "we've" for "we have". Watch for contractions in the books you
read and listen for them when you're speaking. Hey, I just used the contraction "you're"!
A contraction is a combination of two words that omits one or more letters, and remember,
the apostrophe is the punctuation mark we use to show where those letters are missing.
And remember to always be clever!