This is the second most common way to use an apostrophe. When using an apostrophe to show contraction, we place an apostrophe within a word to show that we are omitting some letters of two separate words, and forming them into one. Here are some common examples that you have probably already used in your writing without thinking:

• don’t = do not
• can’t = can not
• I’ve = I have
• we’ve = we have

The list is endless, but you can understand the point. There are plenty of different words that we typically contract, the trick is knowing where the apostrophe goes. Unfortunately, there isn’t a hard and fast rule, so knowing how to use an apostrophe for contraction comes down to exposure. In the examples above, the contraction seems logical, because we omit part of the second word in all four cases, the ‘o’ from not in the first two examples, and the ‘ha’ from have in the second two. But this logic doesn’t always continue, for example:

• won’t = will not

Here, there isn’t a clear logic to the contraction, so again, knowing how to write certain contractions simply comes down to seeing other people use them correctly.