Apostrophe & Contraction Drill
' don't it's we'll they're you've
Every passage contains: ' · don't it's we'll they're you've
QWERTY layout assumed. Backspace corrects; uncorrected errors count against net WPM.
An apostrophe is the only mark on this site's punctuation drills that lands inside a word rather than after one. A comma, a period, a closing quotation mark — every one of them arrives once a chunk of typing is already finished, so the hand can throw in the extra keystroke and move on. don't, couldn't, she'd and you've all interrupt a word that is still being typed, which means the apostrophe reach has to happen mid-stride rather than at a natural stopping point. The practice path's Full Keyboard: Sentence Punctuation lesson types this mark once, folded into ordinary sentences; this drill isolates just the mid-word reach across thirty different contractions and possessives.
The drill's word list splits into two families that behave differently once a hand knows them well. The n't endings — can't, won't, isn't, doesn't, hasn't, hadn't, shouldn't, couldn't, wouldn't — always put the mark in the same relative spot: one letter before a final t, whatever the verb in front of it. The other family rides on a pronoun or noun that changes length every time: I'm, I'll, I've, he's, she'd, we're, they're, there's, that's, what's, who's, let's, you've. A three-letter stem and a seven-letter one both take the identical reach, just after a different number of preceding keystrokes.
A handful of entries aren't contractions of a verb at all. David's, the team's, a week's and nobody's are possessives, and o'clock is a leftover from "of the clock" with three whole words swallowed into one mark. None of that changes how the key gets pressed — it changes what the finished word means, which is a fact about English, not about the keyboard.
Why This Drill
Because the n't family always puts its apostrophe in the same place relative to the end of the word, a hand that has typed couldn't and wouldn't enough times can commit to that shape before it even finishes the stem — the reach becomes a fixed target rather than something to locate fresh each time. The 's, 'd, 'll, 're and 've endings don't offer that shortcut, because the reach comes after whatever word happens to precede it. I'm asks for the apostrophe on the second keystroke; nobody's asks for it on the seventh. Both use the same key, and neither can be pre-loaded the way the other family can.
The key itself sits on the right pinky, one column past the semicolon that finger calls home, and it's the same finger already carrying the Enter key and the right Shift. A mid-word reach up to it means lifting that finger away from its resting business for a single keystroke while the rest of the hand keeps typing letters on either side — a smaller, quieter version of the same interruption the Row-Jump Bigram Drill studies at the scale of a whole finger jumping rows.
What this drill actually tests, then, is whether that interruption stays clean under speed. A typist who drops the apostrophe entirely, or who inserts it a letter early or late, hasn't mistyped a difficult key — the key itself is no harder to hit than any letter nearby. The error is timing: the rest of the hand didn't pause its own momentum long enough for the pinky to make its unrelated trip and get back.
A Fixed Landing Spot Versus a Moving One
can't, won't, isn't, doesn't, hasn't, hadn't, shouldn't, couldn't and wouldn't all put their apostrophe directly before the final t, regardless of how long the verb in front of it runs. That consistency is what lets a fast typist commit to the shape of the whole word in advance, the way the Top 100 Words Drill describes a short, frequent word being retrieved whole rather than assembled letter by letter. I'm, she'd, we're, there's, that's, who's and let's don't get that advantage, since the stem in front of the mark is different every time — the reach is the same physical motion, but it can't be scheduled ahead of the stem the way the n't ending can.
One Reach on a Finger That's Already Busy
The apostrophe key sits directly right of the semicolon and directly left of Enter, all three under the same right pinky. That finger's resting job on standard placement is the semicolon and the Shift key, so a contraction mid-sentence asks it to leave its usual post, hit a key one column over, and get back — without the rest of the hand pausing to wait. The same key, held with Shift, is also the double quotation mark the Quotation Mark Drill uses; contractions never touch Shift at all, so the two drills are really testing two different states of one physical key.
A Possessive Types Exactly Like a Contraction
David's, the team's, a week's and nobody's carry the same single keystroke as any contraction on this list, in the same position relative to the word's ending. The grammar books draw a hard line between a contraction that stands in for two words and a possessive that marks ownership; a keyboard draws none at all, because both are the identical right-pinky reach landing after whatever letters came before it. o'clock is the odd one structurally — it fossilises "of the clock" down to a single mark standing in for an entire missing syllable — but even that unusual case is typed exactly the same way as it's.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the apostrophe fall in a different spot in almost every word on this page?
Only the n't family — can't, won't, doesn't and the rest — puts it in a fixed spot, one letter before the final t. Everything built on 's, 'd, 'll, 're or 've rides after a stem of different length each time, so the reach happens at a different keystroke count word to word.
Is the apostrophe in a contraction typed any differently from one in a possessive like David's?
No. Both use the same key and the same right-pinky reach, in whatever position the word's letters put it. The difference between a contraction and a possessive is a fact about meaning, not about how the hand moves.
Why is o'clock on this list when it isn't built from a pronoun and a verb?
o'clock is a contraction too, just an older one — it stands in for "of the clock", with most of that phrase dropped. Typing it is the identical single reach as any other word here; the unusual part is only how much of the original phrase the apostrophe is covering for.
Does this drill cover a possessive plural, like the teams' schedule, where the apostrophe comes after the s?
No — every word in this set puts the mark before the final letters, not after a trailing s. That reach lands at a different point in the word and isn't part of this particular set.
Why do couldn't and wouldn't feel more automatic than she'd or we're after enough practice?
Their apostrophe sits in the same place relative to the ending every time, so the hand can commit to that shape before finishing the stem. she'd and we're don't offer a fixed landing spot in the same way, since what comes before the mark changes from word to word.
Should I be concerned this drill uses a straight apostrophe rather than the curled one word processors show?
No — the key on a keyboard only ever produces the plain, straight mark. A curled version is something a word processor substitutes afterward for display; this drill and its passage use exactly what the key itself types.