TYPICAL ERROR It does'nt matter when you come.
CORRECTION It doesn't matter when you come.
EXPLANATION The word contraction derives from the Latin con (with, together) and traho, tractus (to draw). Contraction thus involves drawing together, shrinking. In the example above, the words does and not have been contracted to form one word. To achieve the contraction, the two words have been combined into one, a letter has been left out (the letter o) and an apostrophe has taken its place.
When contracting words, the important thing to remember is to insert the apostrophe where the removed letter would have been. Sometimes the apostrophe indicates that more than one letter has been left out, such as when we contract he would to he'd.
Write the contractions of these pairs of words: for example, did not would be contracted to didn't.