What you need to know about contractions:

• Contractions smoosh together two words and use an apostrophe to replace missing letters.

• We use contractions to save time when we write and speak and to sound less formal.

  • If you’re not sure whether it’s OK to use contractions, think about your audience and what they expect to hear.

• There are a limited number of accepted contractions in Standard English.

• There are a few contractions that trip up a lot of writers because they sound just like other words.