Long form and short form of auxiliaries

1. to be (am, are, is)

AffirmativeNegative
Long formContracted formLong formContracted form
I am—I am notI‘m not
you are—you are notyou‘re not
you aren’t
he is—he is nothe‘s not
he isn’t
she is—she is notshe‘s not
she isn’t
it is—it is notit‘s not
it isn’t
we are—we are notwe‘re not
we aren’t
you are—you are notyou‘re not
you aren’t
they are—they are notthey‘re not
they aren’t

2. to be (was, were)

 AffirmativeNegative
PronounLong formContracted formLong formContracted form
I, he, she, itI was—I was notI wasn’t
we, you, theywe were—we were notyou weren’t

3. have (got)

 AffirmativeNegative
PronounLong formContracted formLong formContracted form
I, we, you, theyI have gotI‘ve gotwe have not gotwe‘ve not got
we haven’t got
he, she, itshe has gotshe‘s gotshe has not gotshe‘s not got
she hasn’t got

4. had (got)

 AffirmativeNegative
PronounLong formContracted formLong formContracted form
I, he, she, it, we, you, theyI had gotI‘d gotwe had not gotwe‘d not got
we hadn’t got

5. do

 AffirmativeNegative
PronounLong formContracted formLong formContracted form
I, we, you, theyI do—we do notwe don’t
he, she, itshe does—she does notshe doesn’t

6. did

 AffirmativeNegative
PronounLong formContracted formLong formContracted form
I, he, she, it, we, you, theywe did—we did notwe didn’t

7. Modals (can, could, must, might, will, would, shall, should, ought to)

AffirmativeNegative
Long formContracted formLong formContracted form
can–cannotcan‘t
could–could notcouldn’t
must–must notmustn’t
might–might not—
need–need notneedn’t
will‘llwill notwon’t
would‘dwould notwouldn’t
shall–shall notshan’t
should‘dshould notshouldn’t
ought to–ought not tooughtn’t to

The short/contracted forms ‘s and ‘d have have two different long forms:

  • he‘s = he is or he has
  • he‘d = he would or he had

If have is a full verb, we do not use the short form.

  • I have a shower every morning.

Exercises