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Contractions

Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put together and an apostrophe is added to replace the omitted words.
 
Examples of common contractions are can't, don't, you'll, aren't, I'll, hadn't, won't, shouldn't, isn't, and it's.

Contractions are a frequent topic for spelling and vocabulary practice since they are confusing.

Ways of Teaching Contractions
Teachers have many different methods for teaching contractions. One teacher actually demonstrates the creation of contractions by “performing surgery.” For the “surgery,” the  students don surgical masks and gloves to cut out the unused letters and replace them with apostrophes.  Other educators write songs or poems to help teach contractions. Still others use spelling games as a fun way to help the students learn contractions.


Teaching Contractions with SpellingCity

SpellingCity.com has most of the common contractions in the system ready for use: there are over 400  word lists with contractions already entered by teachers and parents.  When adding contractions such as I’ll or I’ve in your lists, please make sure to enter the word correctly capitalized. The system will recognize the words as correctly spelled when they are an exact match to your entered word lists.

Your students can play a variety of learning games to teach and reinforce the spelling and usage of the contractions. SpellingCity's games can be played online or printed. Here are some useful lists of contractions ready to us on SpellingCity.com.

Lists of Contractions
List Names (Root Word)

MatchIt! 

 Which Word? 
Not

 Play

 Play

Have, Has, & Had

 Play

 Play

Am, Is, and Are

 Play

 Play

Would and Will

 Play

 Play

Words Confused with Contractions 

 Play

 Play

Four Forms of Nouns Part 1

 Play

 Play

Four Forms of Nouns Part 2

 Play

Play



 For your convenience, the words on these lists are available on the bottom of this page. TestMe, MatchIt!, Unscramble, Which Word?, and Audio Word Match are particularly useful for learning contractions. 

Frequent Areas of Confusion
Students can confuse contractions with compound words where words are joined together to form new words or with possessives. 

Possessives appear similar to contractions  because of the apostrophe. Teachers often have spelling lessons to highlight and teach these distinctions. While SpellingCity includes many types and forms of words including singular, plural, present, past, future, and contractions, SpellingCity.com does not generally provide the possessive form of words where an appostrophe is added to a noun to make it possessive. However, based on recent feedback from teachers and parents, SpellingCity will add in May 100 nouns in the possessive form for users' convenience.  The list of the 100 possessives that we will add will be here. It will include the Dolch and other commonly used words. 
For clarity, here is a table of frequently confused areas:


Frequent Areas of Confusion Between Contractions and Possessive Forms 
Possessive using an apostrophe 

The dog’s collar is new.  (singular, one dog)
The dogs’ collars are new.  (plural possessive)

Possessive without an apostrophe 

Its collar is new.
Her necklace is new.

Contraction of two words such as:
it and is; is and not; I and would
It's a new collar.
The collar isn't new.
I'd like a new collar.

SpellingCity has added two lists of nouns in their four forms -- singular, plural, singular possessive, and plural possessive -- to assist in teaching the differences among contractions, possessive nouns, and plural nouns.


Word Lists
Not - aren't; can't; couldn't; didn't; doesn't; don't; hasn't; haven't; isn't; shouldn't; wasn't; weren't; won't; wouldn't
Have, Has, & Had - I've; you've; we've; they've
Am, Is, Are - I'm; you're; he's; she's; it's; we're; they're; that's, who's
Would and Will - I'll; you'll; he'll; she'll; it'll; we'll; they'll; that'll; who'll; I'd; you'd; he'd; she'd; it'd; we'd; they'd; that'd
Words Confused with Contractions - its; it's; their; there; they're; who's; whose; your; you're; were; we're; where's
Four Forms of Nouns Part 1- aunt, aunts, aunt's, aunts', boy, boys, boy's, boys', lady, ladies, lady's, ladies', doctor, doctors, doctor's, doctors'
Four Forms of Nouns Part 2- uncle, uncles, uncle's, uncles', friend, friends, friend's, friends', bird, birds, bird's, birds', farmer, farmers, farmer's, farmers'
 
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