A contraction is simply a shortened version of a word - the contracted form. We often contract or shorten words when we speak and nowadays contractions are popular in everyday spoken English, where the contracted form of "to be" is the most widely used. For example, "I am" becomes "I'm" and "We are" becomes "We're". There are, of course, many examples of other auxiliary verbs that are also contracted in colloquial English. To avoid any confusion over how to use contractions, check the list below for the most common examples:

Am

I'm not going to work today.

Is

She's coming to the party.
Susan's at the office.
Who's at the door?
There's no need to shout!

Are

You're my best friend.
They're on holiday in Thailand.
We're going on holiday tomorrow.

Has

She's been to Thailand twice before.
It's been ages since I last saw you!
John's gone to the office.
What's he been up to?
Who's been told about the cancellation?

Have

I've finished the report at last.
They've got three dogs.
We've been to Thailand twice before.

Had

She'd been waiting all day for his call.
We'd better hurry!
They'd better be on time.
I'd better be on time.

Will

I'll get you a cup of tea.
Susan'll get the cups.
What'll we do now?
He'll be there in five minutes.
They'll wait for you at the station.
That'll be the day!

Would

I'd like a cup of tea, please.
She'd love to travel to Thailand.
They'd prefer to travel to India.
We'd like some tea.

It is important to remember that using contractions makes whatever you say more informal and for that reason contractions are more commonly used in spoken English. However, with the growing use of emails and text messaging, it appears that English is becoming more informal in general and therefore the use of contractions is increasing. Nonetheless, it is important to remember that contractions should be avoided in all types of formal writing, including business letters, essays and exams. In these situations you must use the full form of the auxiliary verbs otherwise you risk your work not being taken seriously.

KJ Hutchings is the founder of KJ Language Services, offering editing, writing and proofreading services and advice on how you can make your English language documents the very best they can be. For more information, visit http://www.kjlanguageservices.com/.