Contractions are words in the English language that combine two words in one and replace the missing letters with a punctuation mark called an apostrophe. This is one of the lessons you will learn when you take a free English online course. The instruction is provided in simple terms through dialogues that have at least one contraction in each one. For example, let is a very common contraction in the English language that is composed of two words ?let and us. The ?is omitted and replaced by an apostrophe (? to make the shortened form of the word. It is used in both casual and formal conversation. The verb o be?is one that is commonly used in English. Some of the commonly used contractions are: * They are ? * We are ? * I am ? * You are ? * He is ? * She adult acne treatment is ? Along with learning the contractions, you also learn the proper verb and subject agreement. You never say you is or I are in English. There are negative contractions as well that are covered in other lessons, once you grasp the concept of using contractions. Instead of saying do not, you would say don and instead of saying cannot, you would say can. At the same time it is perfectly acceptable to use the words instead of the contractions, but native English speakers use contractions in their speech and writing on a regular basis. You can read the conversations and listen to them at the same time. This will give you practice in three important elements of learning English ?listening, reading and speaking. You can use the short dialogues as speaking practice when you read along with the speaker.