Shortening and abbreviation An abbreviation

Why Are Contractions Important in Grammar?

Contractions are an important part of English speech and English grammar. Contractions make words smaller, which makes them easier and faster to say. Contractions contribute to a conversational tone, so it’s best to avoid using contractions in formal speeches, formal writing, and academic papers. Some contractions, such as “o’clock,” are fine to use in formal writing since the contracted form is more known than the phrase “of the clock.”

4 Types of Contractions

Four common types of contractions are:

1. 
   Subject pronoun + verb: The most common type of contraction is a combination of a subject pronoun and a verb. For example, the subject pronoun “I” and the verb “have” combine to form the contraction “I’ve.” Other examples include “she’s,” “you’ll,” “and we’d.” Contractions can also use nouns and words like “here” and “there,” as in the sentence “Here’s your coffee.”
   
2. 
   Interrogative adverbs: When writing interrogative sentences, you can combine interrogative adverbs and verbs to create contractions. For example, the interrogative “what” and the verb “is” pair to create “what’s.”
   
3. 
   Verb + “not”: You can create a negative contraction by combining a verb and the word “not.” For example, the verb “can” and the word “not” join to create the contraction “can’t.” Other examples include “won’t,” “shouldn’t,” and “wouldn’t.”
   
4. 
   Informal contractions: Informal contractions are contractions of speech that represent how a contracted word sounds. The contraction “gonna” is a colloquial contraction of the words “going” and “to.” Another example is “y’all,” which combines “you” and “all.” Informal contractions can also end with an apostrophe, such as “movin’,” which omits the “g” in “moving” to make the word shorter.
   

• 
  Place contractions after pronouns and question words. Contractions usually occur after "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," and "they." Contractions can also begin with question words, such as “who,” “what,” or “where.”
  
• 
  Choose an auxiliary verb. Contractions often involve an auxiliary verb, also known as a helping verb. These verbs include the auxiliary forms of the verbs “have” and “to be”—including “am,” “are,” and “is.”
  
• 
  Add an apostrophe. Replace the excised vowel in a contraction with an apostrophe. It is usually the vowel of the verb following the first word. Contractions can also occur between an auxiliary verb and the word “not,” in which case you replace the “o” with an apostrophe.
  
• 
  Use contractions in casual writing. Multiple contractions in one sentence can make your writing sound informal, so limit your use of contractions in formal writing.
  

2. QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO THE THEORITICAL INFORMATION OF THE GIVEN THEME

1. What is the shortening?
(Shortening is the process of substracting phonemes and / or morhemes from words and word-groups without changing their lexico-grammatical meaning.)
2. What is the abbreviation?
(An abbreviation (from Latin ‘brevis’, meaning short) is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase;)
3. What kind of types shortening have?
( blending, clipping, abbreviation)
4. What is clipping? (Clipping is the process of cutting off one or several syllables of a word.)
5.What is the lexical abbreviation?
(Lexical abbreviation is the result of shortening of a word or a word-group both in written and oral speech.)
6. What is the initialism? (an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately (e.g. BBC )

7. What is the contraction? (A contraction is a shortened form of a word (or group of words) that omits certain letters or sounds. In most contractions, an apostrophe represents the missing letters. The most common contractions are made up of verbs, auxiliaries, or modals attached to other words: He would=He’d. I have=I’ve. They are=They’re. You cannot=You can’t.)

8. What is the acronym? (an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g. ASCII, NASA ).
9. What are the four common types of contractions?
(1)Subject pronoun + verb; 2)Interrogative adverbs; 3)Verb + “not”’ 4)Informal contractions;)
10. What is a process of shortening the result of which is a word made up of the initial letters or syllables of the components of a word-group or a compound word? (Abbreviation)

3. MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS

1. The verb abbreviate means to…
A) provide an example
B) make shorter
C) reduce in quality
2. Which type of abbreviation is BBC?
A) an initialism
B) a contraction
C) a shortening
3. When an abbreviation is a shortening, the front and/or end of the word is
a) cut up
b) cut off
c) cut in
4. The modern approach to punctuating acronyms is to use
a) no full stops
b) one full stop
c) two full stops
5. When you cut out part of the inside of a word, you form
a) a contraction
b) an acronym
c) an initialism
6. In contractions of more than one word, missing letters are replaced by
a) a full stop
b) a comma
c) an apostrophe
7. Contractions may be used to save space in writing or
a) ink in printing
b) time in speaking
c) choice in punctuation
8. Initialisms are usually pronounced as
a) letters
b) contractions
c) words
9. An acronym is usually pronounced as
a) letters
b) a word
c) a phrase
10. Shortenings like app, zoo and bike are usually spoken in the
a) original form
b) informal form
c) initial form

1	A
2	B
3	A
4	A
5	A
6	B
7	B
8	C
9	C
10	B

3. My own made activities on the theme:

Abbreviations for States The names of the states are commonly abbreviated. Write the correct abbreviation for each state name.
1. Alabama __________ 26. Montana
2. Alaska____________ 27. Nebraska
3. Arizona____________ 28. Nevada
4. Arkansas___________ 29. New Hampshire
5. California__________ 30. New Jersey
6. Colorado___________ 31. New Mexico
7. Connecticut_________ 32. New York
8. Delaware___________ 33. North Carolina
9. Florida_------------------ 34. North Dakota
10. Georgia____________ 35. Ohio
11. Hawaii____________ 36. Oklahoma
12. Idaho______________ 37. Oregon
13. Illinois____________ 38. Pennsylvania
14. Indiana_____________ 39. Rhode Island
15. Iowa______________ 40. South Carolina
16. Kansas-_____________ 41. South Dakota
17. Kentucky___________ 42. Tennessee
18. Louisiana___________ 43. Texas
19. Maine_______________ 44. Utah
20. Maryland_____________ 45. Vermont
21. Massachusetts_________ 46. Virginia
22. Michigan___________ 47. Washington
23. Minnesota___________ 48. West Virginia
24. Mississippi___________ 49. Wisconsin
25. Missouri____________ 50. Wyoming

State whether true or false.
1. Use standard abbreviations and symbols as far as possible while writing a note.

1. 
   True B) False
   

1. 
   Creating State Abbreviations Some state abbreviations are created by combining the first and last letter of the state's name. Using this method, create the abbreviation for each of the following states.
   

1.Kentucky ________ 2. Louisiana ________ 3. Maine ________ 4. Maryland ________ 5. Georgia ________ 6. Hawaii ________ 7. Connecticut ________ 8. Iowa ________ 9. Kansas ________ 10. Pennsylvania ________ 11. Virginia ________ 12. Vermont ________

2. 
   All state names that contain two words (ex: North Carolina) combine the first letter of each word to create the abbreviation. Combine the first letter of each word in the following state names to create the correct abbreviation.
   

1. Rhode Island ________ 2. South Carolina ________ 3. South Dakota ________ 4. New Hampshire ________ 5. New Jersey ________ 6. New Mexico ________ 7. New York ________ 8. North Carolina ________ 9. North Dakota ________