What are CONTRACTIONS in Grammer.?

Question

i have to write an essay and the teach said NO contractions!

Answer 1

Contractions are where you put together two words, such as "will not," and shorten it into "won't" by utilizing an apostrophe. It is generally considered bad grammar in professional composition, so most people will tell you not to use contractions.  

Examples of contractions:

cannot - can't

do not - don't

will not - won't

have not - haven't

As you can see, most of these include "not." If you are trying to express the inability, or negative of something, it might also be helpful to rearrange you sentence so you do not have to use such a term.

Example:

I can't understand this math problem.

I am unable to understand this math problem.

It can help make your writing more interesting and varied. Don't do it thought if it interrupts your writing style or sounds forced.

Answer 2

Contractions are like the word don't....use do not instead.  Other examples are won't...will not and it's...it is.  No apostrophes except for showing possession.

Answer 3

Contractions, which are two or more words combined, are generally perfectly acceptable in spoken English (many other languages do not use contractions), but are often rejected in formal writing as being a lazy and cruder method.

The idea is that when two words are combined, they usually drop one or more letters.  The apostrophe is there to show that letters have been dropped.   For instance, everyone knows "nine o'clock" but do not realize that this comes from an old saying "nine on the clock."  So the "n" and "the" were both dropped and an apostrophe inserted.

People get confused with whether a word is a contraction or a possessive.  For instance, a lot of people mistake "its" for "it's."  If you can remember that the apostrophe is there to show letter(s) missing, then you can use "its" correctly as a possessive because PRONOUN possessive NEVER show an apostrophe.

T3

ToTeachATeacher.com

Answer 4

Contractions are using two words fused into one, by using an apostrophe to link them, for example:  can't (can not)  won't (will not), don't,  (do not)  shouldn't   (should not) etc.

Answer 5

Contractions are when you shorten words like writing "don't" instead of "do not" or "won't" instead of "will not."  Contractions are considered to be a less formal way of speaking, which your teacher doesn't believe to be appropriate in a school essay.

Answer 6

You can't use can't, must use cannot.

Don't use don't, only do not.