If you want to understand French people like me when we’re  speaking together, you can save yourself a lot of trouble if you know that we have two kinds of contractions:
The written contractions and the oral contractions.

The written contractions in the French language

Those are the ones you already know or have heard of.
The best thing to do is learn them by heart:

J’ – j’ai faim
qu’ – la voiture qu’il a achetée
l’ – l’eau est bonne
d’ – la maison d’Antoine
m’ – il m’a dit
t’ – il t’a dit
c’  – c’est ici
n’ – il n’a pas faim
s’ – il s’est levé

The oral contractions in the French language

You don’t always learn these at school and it’s too bad because when
French people speak together, meaning when they don’t make efforts to be understood by a foreign person, they make a lot of contractions that you never write. Indeed, unlike English (I don’t, I’d, you’re), the French grammar does not allow us to mention those contractions when you write. They are strictly phonetic:

With « je – de – me – se – le – te – ne – ce « , we tend to contract (80% of the common contractions…):
« je » : j’suis – j’vais – j’pense…
« de » : j’ai envie d’manger
« me » : tu’m donnes quelque chose

 

Quite common but not very proper :
The negative « ne » is often omitted: j’viens pas
We also ommit the « il » or « elle » or contract the « tu »:
« i » mange pas
« è » mange pas
« t’as faim ? »

We also have contractions inside  longer words:
demander = d’mander
une semaine = une s’maine

I made a summary of the way we contract the French language in our everyday conversation but of course, the best thing to do is to speak with me on Skype or join one of our French intensive immersion sessions on the Côte d’Azur or in Paris…

Just let me know and I will give you all the information.

A bientôt, j’espère

François
www.frenchbythesea.com