A contraction is a word that is made by pushing two words together and bumping out some letters.
He’s is a contraction. The words he and is are pushed together to form one word, bumping out the letter i.
An apostrophe ( ‘ ) replaces the missing letter.
Here are some more words that can be pushed together to make a contraction.
Notice the apostrophe in each new word. The apostrophe replaces the letters that were taken out.
can not = can’t
does not = doesn’t
has not = hasn’t
have not = haven’t
is not = isn’t
could not = couldn’t
would not = wouldn’t
should not = shouldn’t
I will = I’ll
she will = she’ll
they will = they’ll
we will = we’ll
I am = I’m
you are = you’re
we are = we’re
they are = they’re
Anytime you see a contraction – a word with an apostrophe because some letters were bumped out – you can always put the missing letters back in and make it into two words.
you’re = you are
we’ll = we will
they’re = they are
An apostrophe ( ‘ ) goes put into a contraction as a placeholder for the letters that were bumped out to make the contraction. Use an apostrophe to mark the place of missing letters in a contraction.