Language Arts - Punctuation - Using Apostrophes
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Language Arts - Punctuation - Apostrophes in Contractions

Apostrophes

The English language allows us to shorten certain pairs of words into a single word using an apostrophe. For instance, we can shorten "do not" into "don't." Here are some more examples: 

 
   Fred doesn't like plain water.
      (doesn't is short for does not)
 
   Jill can't stand snakes.
      (can't is short for cannot)
 
   Mary won't go to the desert with us.
      (won't is short for will not)
Here is a list of contractions and the word pairs they are short for: 
 
       CONTRACTION              WORD PAIR

 
         don't                    do not
         can't                    cannot
         won't                    will not
         haven't                  have not
         hasn't                   has not
         wouldn't                 would not
         shouldn't                should not
         didn't                   did not
         doesn't                  does not
         mustn't                  must not
         couldn't                 could not
         let's                    let us
You should pay close attention to how contractions are formed. In many cases we just put two words together (like "do" and "not") and replace the "o" in "not" with an apostrophe (as in "doesn't"). But there are exceptions. 

   will not     --> won't

   let us       --> let's

   we will      --> we'll

   how will     --> how'll

   what had     --> what'd

   I would      --> I'd
  
   should have  --> should've

   of the clock --> o'clock

   madam        --> ma'am

   who has      --> who's
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