Contractions and Abbreviations

Sometimes, we shorten or combine words by creating contractions. To make a contraction, we remove a letter or letters from a word and replace the letter(s) with an apostrophe ('). For example, we shorten "He is feeling ill" to "He's feeling ill."

Some other common contractions include: aren't for are not, can't for can not, he'll for he will, and won't for will not.

We also use abbreviations to shorten words in English. This is especially common with titles. For example, we shorten the title Doctor to Dr. To show that two people are married, they use the titles Mr. and Mrs. For example, "I'd like you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Ford." All military titles are abbreviated, such as Capt. for Captain, or Sgt. for Sergeant.

Common business abbreviations in English are Co. for Company, or Corp. for Corporation. For example, "Stu has worked for Rockville Corp. for five years."