Thanks to this post it is much easier to enter contractions on the iPhone. The automatic correction features work well but don't guess that I mean to type "I'll" when it sees the perfectly spelled word "ill" which one hopes to rarely type on an iPhone. However, adding a third 'l' makes the phone suggest "I'll" as the correct spelling so instead of switching to the symbols just type "illl" and you'll get "I'll" offered as the correction.