Verbs: contractions

Where are we now? You know the present tense and how to modify it. You know common verbs: to be, to do and to have. How they work on their own, and how they help other verbs. You will see those auxiliary verbs in action very soon.

One topic remains, before we can learn the other tenses: negation. We’ve already seen it at work for nouns. The word remains the same: not.

But English remains English. Of course we’re going to contract this!

Remark

Remember: contraction means “make smaller”. It’s when you combine two words into one.

Helper negations

Because auxiliary and modal verbs are so common, they have contractions. If a sentence is negated, the word not is eaten by the verb to get the table below.

-	to be	-	to do	-	to have	-
-	present	past	present	past	present	past
I	aren’t	wasn’t	don’t	didn’t	haven’t	hadn’t
He/she/it	isn’t	wasn’t	doesn’t	didn’t	hasn’t	hadn’t
Other	aren’t	weren’t	don’t	didn’t	haven’t	hadn’t

To negate a sentence, replace the verb by its contraction.

When used on their own …

Example

You are happy (😀) => You aren’t happy (😡)
We are friends (🤝) => We aren’t friends (👎)
I have the time (⏳) => I haven’t the time (⌛)

The modal verbs form their contraction the same way: by adding n’t at the end.

The verb will is special. It contracts to won’t. Its other form, shall, contracts to shan’t.

So, when used as a modal verb …

Example

You should know this => You shouldn’t know this!
You can dance => You can’t dance
We could have won => We couldn’t have won anyway
I will try the milk => I won’t try the milk

All other negations

Now I hope you realize something important. All other verbs … don’t have this negated version.

I mean, how would you negate “to swim”? Swimn’t? Notswim? Swimnot?

How do we negate those? By adding a helper verb and negating that.

For the present simple, it’s do.

Example

You tell a story => You don’t tell a story
We walk to the beach => We don’t walk to the beach.
They eat bread => They don’t eat bread.

Remark

You can also add “do” in a normal sentence. But that really emphasizes the word, like you’re trying to make a point: “But … but … they do eat bread! 😮”

Which modal verb to add depends on the tense. As you saw, it’s “do” for the present.

Why? Because if a modal verb is present, they are responsible for having the correct tense! The main verb can chill out and do nothing. The modal verb will be changed to show the tense.

Example

I walked to the beach => I didn’t walk to the beach
They danced all night => They didn’t dance all night.

Don’t worry. The tenses will be explained soon!

Just remember this idea: when a modal verb is present, they will conjugate to fit the tense. And the main verb stays the same.

Pronoun Contractions

These verbs are also commonly paired with pronouns. So, obviously, English created contractions for that.

All auxiliary verbs can be contracted with the subject, as long as …

The sentence is affirmative (not negated)
The subject is a pronoun or determiner (you’ll learn those later)

-	to be	to have	had	will	would
I	I’m	I’ve	I’d	I’ll	I’d
You	You’re	You’ve	You’d	You’ll	You’d
He	He’s	He’s	He’d	He’ll	He’d
She	She’s	She’s	She’d	She’ll	She’d
It	It’s	It’s	It’d	It’ll	It’d
We	We’re	We’ve	We’d	We’ll	We’d
They	They’re	They’ve	They’d	They’ll	They’d
There	There’s	There’s	There’d	There’ll	There’d
That	That’s		That’d	That’ll	That’d

Remark

“There” and “that” are the determiners. You can see them as pronouns for non-human things. “I like my garden. There’s so much life!”

Example

I am Tiamo => I’m Tiamo
I have brought cake => I’ve brought cake
When I was young, I would sing => When I was young, I’d sing
We will do that => We’ll do that

A common error is writing “it’s” and “its” in the wrong situations. The first one is a contraction of a pronoun and verb. The second one is a possessive pronoun. (These were taught at Pronouns.)

Example

It is no problem => It’s no problem
My phone has lost the battery it has => My phone has lost its battery

Hopefully you agree that these contractions save a lot of space. This is why English can communicate a lot of information with very few words or symbols.

Some people are very against contractions. I don’t agree. Always use them, it’s short and sweet. The only reason to write something in full, is to emphasize it.

Example

“You aren’t a student here!” => “No, I am a student here!”

Questions

In the Pronouns chapter, I discussed contractions to change the intention of a question. Now we have verbs, contractions and negation!

Which means I can formally explain and define how to form questions in English.

To form a question, switch the subject and modal verb. So, the sentence starts with the modal verb and the subject comes after it.

Example

You have seen the news => Have you seen the news?

Example

He should take the bus => Should he take the bus?

Again, if no modal verb exists, you insert it yourself.

Example

They walk down the road => Do they walk down the road?

Example

You see a cow => Do you see a cow?

And to answer questions, you repeat the modal verb. If the answer is negative, you negate it.

Example

Have you seen the news? => Yes, I have.

Example

Do you walk down the road? => No, I don’t.

Cross questions

And finally, another interesting bit from the English language. They have a very indirect way of asking questions, a bit passive-agressive.

First you simply make a statement. (Not a question, just a statement.)
Then you repeat the modal verb and subject, but reversed.

I call this a cross question. You can remember it that way. If the statement is affirmative, they repeat it negated. If the statement is negative, they repeat it affirmative.

The image my English teacher drew when she explained this in high school.

Example

You’ve eaten all the cookies, haven’t you?! (Sentence is positive, so repeat with a negative.)

Example

He didn’t do his homework, did he?! (Sentence is negative, so repeat with a positive.)

Example

They will finish in time, won’t they?

Essentially, this turns a statement into a question. I think it’s a fun bit of the English language. It’s also very common, so it’s good to learn it now.