The spelling with the l sound is "shalln't". Also, I came across this after I heard it in Stargate SG1.

Season 9 - Episode 4 "The Ties that Bind". About 25 minutes in.

Daniel Jackson is told something along the lines of "we shall have to get used to each other". And he replies "No, we shalln't".

Also, iOS autocorrect will automatically punctuate "shalln't" for you.

Answer from Fogmeister on Stack Exchange
Discussions

Can I use “shall”, “shan’t”, “whilst”, and “henceforth”?
I’m from the US. If I encounter “whilst”, I just assume the person is from the UK - it’s very normal. “Henceforth” and “shall” can be used some types of academic, formal, or legal writing - not “shan’t”, because contractions are avoided in these types of documents. If I see several words like this in one text (a message, an email or online post, for example), it unfortunately reminds me of a writing style of many online scammers - I just assume this person is from a former territory of the British Empire and is trying to gain my trust or respect with (what is to me) a strange, unnatural and antiquated formal register. More on reddit.com
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July 13, 2025
"'ll+not" = "shan't"? | WordReference Forums
Can man say or write "'ll+not" instead of "shan't"? Hello nice people: I'm a non-native English speaker and now studying it as my second language. I have several problems about the English contraction. The first question is about the word "shall". I know the negative form of "shall"... More on forum.wordreference.com
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January 4, 2011
orthography - Apostrophes in contractions: shan't, sha'n't or sha'nt? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
While the general rule is to use ... as in "shall not -> shan't", if we need to choose between missing letters that we'd normally pronounce and those that are silent, use the apostrophe to denote the missing sounds. ... Well. at first glance, it appears to me that our way of ‘making’ contractions is to 1) lop ... More on english.stackexchange.com
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June 18, 2012
Are there any contractions that we no longer use?
Needn’t and mustn’t are on their way out in American English More on reddit.com
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August 10, 2018
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Quora
quora.com › How-do-you-use-the-word-shallnt-in-a-sentence
How to use the word ''shalln't'' in a sentence - Quora
Answer (1 of 8): I’ve never heard or seen the word “shalln’t”. The standard negative of “shall” is “shan’t”. I believe that it’s rarely if ever used in American English, but in British English it can still be used with first person pronouns - “I” and “we” - other ...
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Washington State University
brians.wsu.edu › 2016 › 05 › 31 › shant-shall-not
shan’t / shall not | Common Errors in English Usage and More | Washington State University
May 31, 2016 - The use of the contraction “shan’t” for “shall not” is more common in the UK than in the US, where it may strike readers as a bit old-fashioned.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/englishlearning › can i use “shall”, “shan’t”, “whilst”, and “henceforth”?
r/EnglishLearning on Reddit: Can I use “shall”, “shan’t”, “whilst”, and “henceforth”?
July 13, 2025 -

As a non-native English speaker, I was taught all these words above and I can even use them naturally. “Shall” being similar to “must” or “Will”, “shan’t” being the abbreviation for “shall not”, “whilst” meaning “while” and “henceforth” meaning “from now on” or “from that time forward”. Though, I’ve seen some videos where native speakers deem them old-fashioned and out of use and say they’re not appropriate to use in modern English. Is that true but only in speech? What about formal compositions? Are they perfectly valid today?

*As I am writing this, words like “amongst”, “midst”, “amidst”, “against” that have the same -st suffix pattern with “whilst” came to my mind.

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BBC
bbc.co.uk › worldservice › learningenglish › grammar › learnit › learnitv184.shtml
Learning English | BBC World Service
negative auxilliary verbs: contracted forms: pronunciation · Yasmeen from Portugal writes:
Find elsewhere
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WordReference
forum.wordreference.com › english only › english only
"'ll+not" = "shan't"? | WordReference Forums
January 4, 2011 - *"Shall," and consequently "shan't" and "shouldn't" (when used as the first person conditional), are rarely used in modern AE. ... To me I shan't/won't/'ll not bother you again all mean the same if spoken in a neutral tone of voice and I fail to see the drama in the 'll not version. Of course, I can imagine it being emphatic if the not is stressed, but the same could be achieved, I suppose, by stresing the other contractions.
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An apostrophe generally indicates an omission, but in this case I would favour shan't over sha'n't for readability and consistency.

Sha'nt looks wrong, and I've never heard that their should only be a single apostrophe at the first omission.


Looking for a "general rule", an article called That Cute Li'l Ol' Apostrophe that claims:

We never use more than one apostrophe to a word.

While the general rule is to use the apostrophe in place of the last missing letter, such as in "shall not -> shan't", if we need to choose between missing letters that we'd normally pronounce and those that are silent, use the apostrophe to denote the missing sounds.

Another claims the following:

Well. at first glance, it appears to me that our way of ‘making’ contractions is to 1) lop off the last half of the first word and 2) smash it together with the “not”, contracting the “o” with an apostrophe. See for yourself…

shan’t= shall (minus the “-ll”) + not (minus the “o”) = sha n’t

Which is then moved together (sha->n’t) to spell: shan’t. Personally, I believe that this contraction (judging by the way we use the word, and say it) is an ‘evolved creature’ from the two contractions “shouldn’t” and “can’t”; as opposed to its parentage being shall and not. It just makes more sense. [Shouldn’t + can’t= shan’t]


The OED lists both shan't and sha'n't as colloquial contractions of shall not, but not sha'nt. Shan't appears in 139 quotations, sha'n't appears in 25, and sha'nt is in only five.

Project Gutenberg's out-of-copyright books are usually older and don't necessarily reflect contemporary use, but searching their August 2003 CD of 600 ebooks: there are 589 results in 103 books for for shan't, 122 results in 29 books for sha'n't, and only three results in two books for sha'nt.

Another common contraction, won't, comes from woll not (an archaic version of will not). It also has two chunks of letters omitted. Should this be wo'n't or wo'nt? Motivated Grammar writes:

Did the contractions won’t and shan’t spring into English fully formed, like Athena from Zeus’s noggin? No, interestingly. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (printed in 1855), has wo’n't, as do some (modern) editions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and The Ohio Educational Monthly in an article from 1868. Likewise, sha’n't was commonplace in the old days, plastered across the pages of the dreadful Victorian novels that I had to read in AP English as a lesson as to what happens to those who show an interest in reading. Books like Evelina; or, The history of a young lady’s entrance into the world (why did every single book in those days have to have a subtitle?)

Now the interesting thing is that won’t and shan’t live side-by-side with wo’n't and sha’n't in these old books. Some quick results on Google Books between 1600 and 1800: 777 won’ts, 57 wo’n'ts; 216 shan’ts, 73 sha’n'ts. Between 1600 and 1700: 48 won’ts, no wo’n'ts; 1 each of shan’t and sha’n't. So it seems it was never the case that the multiple-apostrophe form was more common. For some reason or another, English writers have always preferred a single apostrophe over strict application of “put apostrophes wherever a letter’s missing”. (Michael Quinion guesses that the double-apostrophe form was a later edition, suggested by logic-minded grammarians, that died out because it was a pain to write and looked weird.)

Quinion pointed out shan't is actually older than sha'n't and summarised:

The abbreviation, as you say, strictly demands the extra apostrophe, and it was probably the influence of logically minded eighteenth-century grammarians who persuaded many people to put the extra one in to start with — but whenever did logic ultimately matter in language?


So: the rules aren't really clear, but shan't is the most common, sha'n't is somewhat old fashioned, and sha'nt is extremely rare.

Why isn't English consistent?

Because it's evolved from a big mish-mash of several other languages over some 1,500 years.

Why isn't Winnie the Pooh mandatory reading for all English speakers?

Because nothing is mandatory reading for all English speakers. If Winnie the Pooh is mandatory reading, what else should be mandatory? Where do you stop? The only mandatory reading for English speakers should be the English language.

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In fiction and certain types of literature, anything goes. Regardless of whether something is grammatically correct or not, it doesn't matter. Just take a look at James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake." When I first looked at that, it was a total mess. Well, it's still a mess, but everyone knows that's the way he writes, and he owned it.
When you master something, and eventually surpass it, you are allowed to break the rules. That's why we read masters of literature. They received the right to break the rules and write their own way to add flavor to their fiction.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/etymology › are there any contractions that we no longer use?
r/etymology on Reddit: Are there any contractions that we no longer use?
August 10, 2018 - Along with “sha’nt” or shan’t” (contraction of “shall not”; spell check is red no matter which way I spell it, so your guess is as good as mine).
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San Jose State University
sjsu.edu › writingcenter › docs › handouts › Contractions.pdf pdf
Contractions [pdf]
Here are some common contractions and the groups of words that they represent. aren’t  are not · there’s  there is; there has · can’t  can not · they’d  they had; they would · couldn’t  could not · they’ll  they will; they shall ·
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Brainly
brainly.com › english › high school › how do i spell the contraction of "shall not"?
[FREE] How do I spell the contraction of "shall not"? - brainly.com
January 24, 2024 - Examples include sentences where 'shall not' is replaced with 'shan't'. The contraction for 'shall not' is 'shan't'. This contraction combines the two words, omitting the letters 'o' in 'not' and using an apostrophe to indicate the omission.
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Filo
askfilo.com › cbse › smart solutions › short form of the following:1.shall not.
Short form of the following:1.Shall not.... | Filo
November 8, 2024 - Short form of the following:1.Shall not. ... The short form or contraction of 'shall not' is 'shan't'. Contractions are shortened forms of words or phrases, where an apostrophe is used to indicate missing letters.
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Esl
esl.wiki › en › grammar › contraction_of_verbs
Contracted Forms of Verbs [ESL.Wiki]
A small number of modal verbs, when contracted with the particle "not", take on a non-standard form and pronunciation: can: cannot → can't [cʌnt / cænt] could not → couldn't · may: may not → mayn't · might not → mightn't · must: must not → mustn't · need: need not → needn't · shall: shall → 'll ·
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ThoughtCo
thoughtco.com › what-is-a-negative-contraction-1691339
What Are Negative Contractions and How Are They Used?
April 30, 2025 - For this reason, speakers have a choice between negative vs auxiliary contraction for the following verb forms only: is, are; have, has had; will, would; shall, should. Some of the auxiliary contracted forms are ambiguous: he's not is the contracted form of both he is not and he has not (although this use is relatively rare); I'd not be derived from either I had not, I would not or I should not, and you'll not can, at least in principle, be the contracted form of you will not or you shall not.
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Turito
turito.com › home › english › contractions with not
Contractions With Not | Turito
December 29, 2023 - I will à I’ll (the first word remained the same) And in some cases, both the first word and the second word lose letters. Shall not à Shan’t (Both words changed) An apostrophe always fills the space of the missing letters.
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University of Sussex
sussex.ac.uk › informatics › punctuation › apostrophe › contractions
Contractions : The Apostrophe
The apostrophe is used in writing contractions — that is, shortened forms of words from which one or more letters have been omitted. In standard English, this generally happens only with a small number of conventional items, mostly involving verbs. Here are some of the commonest examples, with their uncontracted equivalents: ... Note in each case that the apostrophe appears precisely in the position of the omitted letters: we write can't, not *ca'nt, and aren't, not *are'nt.
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  • You can contract "is" and "has" when they are auxiliary verbs to 's
  • You can contact "are" to "'re" and "am" to "'m"
  • You can contract "have" when it is an auxiliary verb to 've
  • You can contract "had" and "would" (auxiliary) to 'd.
  • You can contract "will" and "shall" to "'ll"
  • You can contract "not" to n't when forming the negation of a verb
  • You can contract "can not" to "can't", "do not" to "don't" and "will not" to "won't"
  • There are a number of other colloquial and idiomatic contractions such as "gonna" for "going to" or "aint" for "am not/is not"
  • Contractions are less common when the subject of the verb is not a pronoun, at least in written English.

*Rules are subject to editing as I think of more examples

You can't contract any of these auxiliary verbs when they are fronted in a question or otherwise inverted. So "What am I to do" but never "What'm I to do".

All contractions are somewhat informal and avoided in the most formal written or spoken English.

Double contractions are rare and to be avoided, even if possible. So I'd avoid "mustn't've" in writing (even though it follows the rules above)

In you example, the contraction wouldn't be a problem, but the underlying grammar is incorrect:

You should say "I don't see how that's relevant"

(Expanding the contraction in your example gives I do not see how is that relevant. But the object of "see" must be a noun phrase and not a question, so the correct noun phrase is "how that is relevant". This confusion between a question like "What is it?" and a noun phrase like "what it is" is common and has been asked and answered here before)

You can't contract "do" to "'o" so "how do not" cannot be contracted to how'on't

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_English_contractions

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Most informal contractions like these will be written down when the writer is conveying spoken English. Then anything the reader can understand is acceptable.

In your example you want

but I don't see how that's relevant

The way you wrote it the contracted "is" is in the wrong place.

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Scribbr
scribbr.com › home › contractions (grammar) | definition & examples
Contractions (Grammar) | Definition & Examples
May 2, 2025 - A contraction is a combination of two or more existing words that creates a shorter word. Sometimes, a contraction can be a single word (e.g., “kinda”), but in most cases contractions are formed using words that often go together (e.g., “do not” becomes “don’t”).
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Cambridge Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org › us › dictionary › english › shan-t
SHAN'T | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
1 week ago - short form of shall not: I shan't be able to come to your party. "Pick those books up immediately." "Shan't (= I refuse to)!" More examplesFewer examples · I shan't be long. I shan't tell her.