Short Forms in English Grammar You Need to Know

In English grammar, short forms are very common and easy to use, which can make them easy to forget! This article will remind you of eight commonly used short forms in the English language so that you can utilize them in your own writing without even thinking about it.

That's

1. Who's the new kid on the block? That is the new kid on the block.

2. Why don't you stay for dinner? Is that a good idea? That sounds like a good idea. 

3. John drove up to his house and got out of his car, slamming the door behind him. That slammed the door behind him. 

4. When are we supposed to meet them at the airport?

What about...?

Verbs - These short forms show the difference between was and were. There are also short forms for verbs like cut, hit, and run. 

Auxiliary Verbs - These short forms are used with the past participle of a verb, such as been, seen, done.

Nouns - This group of short forms includes articles, pronouns, and nouns that use letter o: zero, hero.

Like that

Most of the time, a lot of sentence clutter can get in the way of meaning. On that note, it is crucial to know and understand the short forms so you can speak more eloquently. This guide introduces 8 short forms that may not seem as obvious or natural when writing formal text.

The fact is

The fact is, there are many short forms in the English language. These are often used as contractions such as I'm for I am. There are also phrases that use short forms including set you up with, be on your toes, and make sure of. It's helpful to know these commonly-used words and phrases because they can shorten your sentence and make them more grammatically correct.

Literally

The post is about the 8 short forms that are common and need to be known by every English speaker. They are: can't, don't, doesn't, doesn't have, didn't, didn't have, don't have, and hasn't. These shortenings help make speech more fluid, or just easier to say when we're talking quickly. We use these shortened forms all the time without even realizing it because they're easy!

Anyway

The word anyway can be used as a transitional word and is often interchangeable with the words in any case. It also indicates that there is no more debate or discussion on a particular topic. When anyway is used as an adverb, it means in any way, regardless of how.

Talk about it

Pronouns are words that can be used instead of a noun or proper noun. A pronoun typically replaces a name. For example, if I'm writing about my husband, then I'll say he. Instead of saying Kiara ate some lunch one could say she ate some lunch. That's an example of a pronoun.

In other words

There are many different aspects of English grammar that can be confusing for students, but a commonly forgotten aspect is the subject-verb agreement when using singular and plural nouns. The most important thing to remember about this difference is that, unlike verb tenses, it does not matter if the noun is regular or irregular: it simply has to match up with the verb. Let's take a look at some examples below