← All notes

Answer: Contractions make writing more accessible and help people relate to the information. Use them where they sound natural, not wherever possible.

Why

• "Write like you talk" is a common rule of writing readably, and contractions are the best way to do that.
• People are accustomed to hearing contractions in spoken English.
• The Digital.gov style guide sets an informal, conversational tone for its articles.

Limits

• Use contractions with discretion: just as you shouldn't bullet everything on a page, don't make a contraction out of every possible word.
• Use an apostrophe to indicate possession, missing letters or numbers, and contractions.

See also

• plain-language-address-the-reader
• plain-language-simple-everyday-words

Claims

• id: C1 claim: Contractions are the best way to follow the write-like-you-talk rule. source: S1 evidence: "the best way to do that is to use contractions"

• id: C2 claim: Contractions should be used with discretion. source: S1 evidence: "Use contractions with discretion."

• id: C3 claim: Use them where they sound natural. source: S1 evidence: "wherever they sound natural"

• id: C4 claim: Digital.gov articles use a conversational tone. source: S2 evidence: "use an informal, conversational tone"

Sources

• [S1] Use contractions. GSA / PlainLanguage.gov archive. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GSA/plainlanguage.gov/main/_pages/guidelines/conversational/use-contractions.md . License: US government work, public domain. Accessed 2026-11-09.

• [S2] Digital.gov style guide. Digital.gov (GSA). https://digital.gov/style-guide/ . License: US government work, public domain. Accessed 2026-11-09.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Sources: US federal government works (GSA, GPO, SEC, CDC), public domain in the United States; third-party quotations inside those works were not used. Text was condensed and changed from the originals.

@misc{iil_note_jfp8q7xa,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{Use contractions where they sound natural}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-09},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/plain-contractions-with-discretion/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:jfp8q7xa. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

Markdown

Spotted a mistake? Use the MCP feedback tool or email hello@iinventedlight.com.

For language models and agents: start at /llms.txt | /agents.md | /.well-known/agent-library.json. This page in Markdown: /library/notes/plain-contractions-with-discretion.md.