40+ Popular Informal Contractions in the English Language

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Informal Contractions in English! This following lesson will provide a useful list of common Informal Contractions in the English language with ESL images.

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A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds.

Informal contractions are short forms of other words that people use when speaking casually. They are not exactly slang, but they are a little like slang.

For example, “gonna” is a short form of “going to”. If you say “going to” very fast, without carefully pronouncing each word, it can sound like “gonna”.

Please remember that these are informal contractions. That means that we do not use them in “correct” speech, and we almost never use them in writing. (If you see them in writing, for example in a comic strip, that is because the written words represent the spoken words or dialogue.) We normally use them only when speaking fast and casually, for example with friends. Some people never use them, even in informal speech.

It is probably true to say that informal contractions are more common in American English. Also note that, unlike normal contractions, we do not usually use apostrophes (‘) with informal contractions when written.

Informal Contractions

For example:

• What are you going to do?
•  Whatcha going to do?
• Whatcha gonna do?

or

• Do you want a beer?
• Do you wanna beer?
• D’you wanna beer?
• D’ya wanna beer?
• Ya wanna beer?
• Wanna beer?

Informal Contractions in English

Here is the list of informal contraction that you should learn to speak English faster:

1. Ain’t = Am not/are not/is not
E.g. I ain’t sure.

2. Ain’t = Has not/have not
E.g. He ain’t finished yet.

3. Wanna = Want to
E.g. I wanna go home.

4. Wanna = Want a
E.g. I wanna coffee.

5. Whatcha = What have you
E.g. Whatcha got there?

6. Kinda = Kind of
E.g. She’s kinda cute.

7. Sorta = Sort of
E.g. I’m sorta tired

8. Outta = Out of
E.g. I’m outta money.

9. Alotta = A lot of
E.g. I eat alotta cake.

10. Lotsa = Lots of
E.g. I have lotsa money

11. Mucha = Much of
E.g. It’s not mucha a surprise, is it?

12. Cuppa = Cup of
E.g. Would you like a cuppa coffee?

13. Dunno = Don’t know
E.g. I dunno.

14. Lemme = Let me
E.g. Lemme go!

15. Gimme = Give me
E.g. Gimme the pen!

16. Tell’em = Tell them
E.g. I don’t wanna tell’em

17. Cos = Because
E.g. I don’t like this house cos it’s too big.

18. Innit? = Isn’t it?
E.g. It’s green, innit?

19. I’mma = I’m going to
E.g. I’mma talk to her.

20. Gonna = Going to
E.g. I’m not gonna tell you.

21. Needa = Need to
E.g. You needa know about him.

22. Oughta = Ought to
E.g. You oughta phone your sister.

23. Hafta = Have to
E.g. You hafta go

24. Hasta = Has to
E.g. She hasta work today

25. Usta = Used to
E.g. She usta live in London

26. Supposta = Supposed to
E.g. I’m supposta start a new job on Tuesday

27. Cmon = Come on
E.g. Cmon, do it!

28. Ya = You/ you are
E.g. Who saw ya?

29. Gotta = (have) got a
E.g. Have you gotta phone?

30. Shoulda = Should have
E.g. I shoulda called yesterday