Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put together and an apostrophe is added to replace the omitted letters.

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 tend to be 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.

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.

VocabularySpellingCity 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.

Contractions at a glance:

Not Contractions: 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, and Had Contractions: I've, you've, we've, they've

Am, Is and Are Contractions: I'm, you're, he's, she's, it's, we're, they're, that's, who's

Would and Will Contractions: 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

Forms of Nouns: aunt, aunts, aunt's, aunts', boy, boys, boy's, boys', lady, ladies, lady's, ladies', doctor, doctors, doctor's, doctors', uncle, uncles, uncle's, uncles', friend, friends, friend's, friends', bird, birds, bird's, birds', farmer, farmers, farmer's, farmers'