I could have written, “Look what I have done” in today’s heading, but I chose to add a contraction. In this example sentence, I formed one word (I’ve) by joining two together (I have) and dropping some letters and adding an apostrophe.

Why did I do it? To make my writing less stuffy and more natural. It’s what I would say to you if we met in person.

Here’s my list of common contractions. Do you know them all? Do you use them?

cannot               can’t                               he/she will             he’ll/she’ll
do not                don’t                               he/she would        he’d/she’d
I am                    I’m                                  they are                they’re
I will                    I’ll                                   they will                 they’ll
I would                I’d                                  there is                 there’s
it is                     it’s                                  will not                  won’t
it will                   it’ll                                  you are                 you’re
he/she is            he’s/she’s                      you will                  you’ll