The apostrophe is used here to talk about something that belongs to somebody or
something. But it is also used to indicate the omission of a few letters, thus forming short
forms or contractions. Don’t is the short form of do not. Similarly, I’m is the short form
of I am. June’09 is the short form of June 2009. In this case, apostrophe indicates that
some letters/ numbers are omitted
Read the following sentences and identify the contracted forms.
Rewrite them
in long form.
“I don’t know’’ she replied. “He’s really sick and Mummy says he needs an
operation.”
But Daddy can’t pay for it.
Let’s see if I’ve the kind of miracle he needs.
III. Read the following story:
Two rats fell into a milk pot. The first rat stopped making attempts to swim thinking
that no one would save it. So, it drowned and lost its life. The other rat decided to continue
swimming in the pot round and round. After some time, the milk turned into curd, the rat sat
on it, and thus saved its life.
Look at the verbs underlined above. They fall into two categories as shown below.
Regular verbs
Present Tense
Past Tense
decide
decided (d)
stop
stopped (ed)
Irregular verbs
Present Tense
Past Tense
fall
fell
lose
lost
The past tense forms of regular verbs are formed by adding ‘d’ or ‘ed’ to their present
tense forms. Irregular verbs have different forms for the present and past tenses. Here
are some irregular verbs.