Contractions

When two words are put together to make a shortened word we use an apostrophe to show where we have chopped out some letters and joined the words together.

We call these shortened words CONTRACTIONS

EXAMPLES of words  +not are+not = aren't  - notice the missing letter o Can you work these out? aren't - are not

haven't - have not

can't - cannot

isn't - is not

couldn't - could not

mustn't - must not

didn't - did not

shouldn't - should not

doesn't - does not

wasn't - was not

I remember this by imagining that an axe has chopped out a letter and left a mark above the spot where the letter was chopped out.  The apostrophe is the mark left by the axe.