A contraction is a word made by shortening and combining two words. Writers use contractions to express themselves more casually and colloquially.

Here are some examples of contractions:

• we are = we're
• do not = don't
• I have = I've

As you can tell from the above examples, contractions use apostrophes. Apostrophes take the place of the letters and spaces that disappear when you form a contraction.