Contractions in language

            Contractions are a type of abbreviation in which letters from the middle of the word are omitted. Examples include:

Contraction                             Full form

Dr                                           Doctor

St                                             Saint

Ltd                                           Limited

Revd.                                       Reverend

             A contraction can also be an abbreviated form of more than one word, for example:

Contraction                              Full form                          

I’ll                                            I will/I shall

We’ve                                      We have

Shouldn’t                                 Should not

            You do not need to use a full stop at the end of contractions, because the last letter of the original word is still present.

           In contractions that represent more than one word, the letters that have been omitted should be replaced with an apostrophe.