Question

What is a contraction?

Answer 1

Hint: The literal definition of ‘contraction’ says that it is when something is made small compared to the original size. Or it means to reduce. We commonly use such contractions in grammar but we might not have realized that they are ‘contractions’.

Complete answer:
A contraction is really just a compressed version of a word (or sequence of words) that excludes certain sounds or alphabets that were originally there in the word (or sequence of words). In most contractions, the missing letters are represented by an apostrophe. The most popular contractions are formed by attaching verbs, supporting verbs, or even modals to different words: Basic examples are; "He would" becomes He'd, or "she is not" becomes she isn't.

When attempting to reflect a specific style of speech, some authors use less traditional contractions. They write somethin' to reflect the way of speech of some people because sometimes they do not pronounce the final g of "something" in conversation. In poetry, you can come across the word e'er (rather than 'ever'). Today there are even other contractions that are done without the use of apostrophes, examples are wanna for 'want to' or gonna for 'going to'.

Since contractions are quite common in conversations, we are not often careful when we pronounce them, this leads to a specific contraction error. While speaking, we often pronounce contractions differently than they are written; for example, should've is pronounced "should of," but it intended to say "should have."

Contractions used in sentences are as follows;
Common contractions
I’m sorry I won’t come to the dance class today. [Here we have used two different contractions that is; I’m for ‘I am’ and won’t for ‘will not’.]
Seana, they’re about to be here. [Here there is used for ‘they are’]

Some contractions without an apostrophe
She is gonna be so mad at you Bruno. [Here gonna is used for ‘going to’]
I wanna take a trip to the Maldives. [Here wanna is used for ‘want to’]

Note: We normally use contractions in informal speech. Although they are approved in the English language, they are considered as a slang form and are not much appreciated informal situations. So exactly due to this reason, we must avoid utilizing them in any formal writing or address.