Contractions

What is a contraction?

A contraction is two words joined into one shorter word. When they join, one or more letters drop out, and an apostrophe (’) takes their place. For example, do + not becomes don’t — the o in not disappears and the apostrophe stands in for it.

How to use this tool

• Squeeze together! — the dropped letters shrink away, the apostrophe slides in, and the two words become one.
• Pull apart — flip back to the two full words to see exactly what happened.
• Hear it again — listen to the two words, then the contraction.
• Next and Shuffle — move through many examples so it never feels static.
• Kind of contraction — focus on one family at a time: n’t (isn’t, can’t), is / am / are (it’s, I’m, you’re), ’ll (I’ll, we’ll), or have / us (I’ve, let’s).

Why it helps

Seeing the exact letters vanish — and the apostrophe drop into their place — makes the apostrophe’s job clear: it is a placeholder for missing letters, not just decoration. That picture helps children spell contractions correctly and read them smoothly. The tool also points out the one that breaks the pattern: will + not becomes won’t, which changes its spelling.

Good for

First through fourth grade — early grammar, spelling, and reading fluency.