Contractions Worksheet

Two words in, one word out

Each row gives a word pair and a line beside it. Do not becomes don't. Twenty rows by default, reshuffled from the bank every time you generate.

The words come from a curated list rather than being assembled by rule, which matters here more than it would elsewhere, because English contractions are not fully regular and a generated list would produce forms nobody says.

The apostrophe marks what went missing

That is the whole rule, and it is worth saying to a class in exactly those words. In do not to don't, the apostrophe is standing where the o used to be. Not decoration, not a gap between words: a marker for a deleted letter.

Most negatives behave. Is not to isn't, could not to couldn't, the o dropping out each time. Pronouns join to verbs the same way: I am to I'm, they are to they're, it is to it's.

Two do not behave, and they are worth teaching separately rather than hoping. Will not becomes won't, which no rule predicts. Cannot becomes can't, losing two letters where the pattern would drop one.

This is where the its and it's problem gets fixed

A child who understands that the apostrophe marks a missing letter has the tool to solve the commonest error in written English, and they will keep it for life.

It's has an apostrophe because a letter is gone: it is. Its has no apostrophe because nothing is missing. Same for they're against their. Taught as a spelling rule to memorise it never sticks; taught as a consequence of what an apostrophe means, it does.

So spend the time on the meaning before the worksheet, not after it.

What to do after the sheet

Read the pairs aloud first. Contractions exist because of how people speak, and hearing do not collapse into don't explains the spelling faster than the spelling explains itself.

Afterwards, sort the answers into families by which word got shortened: the not family, the is family, the will family. The irregulars stand out on their own, which is exactly what you want them to do.

For older pupils, reverse it. Give them a short passage and ask them to find and expand every contraction in it, which is harder than it sounds and catches the ones they have been reading past for years.