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| apostrophe1 |
An apostrophe is a little mark that you see in certain words like "can't" and "I'm." It goes between letters to show that something is missing there. A word like "can't" is a short way of writing and saying "cannot." Using the apostrophe shows that the meaning is the same as "cannot" but that letters are missing and the sound is different. [3 definitions] |
| contract |
When you contract a word, you make it shorter by taking away some of its letters. For example, we often contract the word "cannot" to "can't." When we take away a letter or letters, we put in an apostrophe (') to show that something is missing in that spot. It is even more common to take two words and contract them into one word. For example, we often contract "is not" to "isn't." [1/4 definitions] |
| contraction |
When we say things like "don't" or "I'm" or "can't," we are using what we call contractions. Contractions let us put two words together so we can say or write them in a shorter way. "Don't" is a contraction of the two words "do" and "not." "I'm" is a contraction of the words "I" and "am." The little mark between the two words in a contraction is called an apostrophe. That mark tell us that something is missing. For example, in the contraction "I'm," the letter "a" of the word "am" is missing. |
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