Contraction of "I was"?
Is there a contraction for "I was"?
There are contractions for "I am" (I'm), "I will" (I'll), "I have" (I've), "I would" (I'd), and yet the simple past tense seems conspicuously missing. Why is that? Does that reasoning apply to "I did" and "I had" as well?
Solution 1:
There is no natural/common abbreviation of "I was".
A person speaking with extreme slang, and an affected accent, might say "I's garn down town when I saw dis babe", but usage would be rare.
Solution 2:
"I's" as a contraction of 'I was' is nonstandard and dialectal but nevertheless widely spoken and heard in my neck of the woods (West Country, England). For example,
"I's living in Salisbury before I moved here".