Couldn't
verbA contraction of 'could not', expressing that something was not possible or did not happen.
How to spell couldn't
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce couldn't
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does couldn't mean?
- verbA contraction of 'could not', expressing that something was not possible or did not happen.
Couldn't in a sentence
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She couldn't find her keys before the meeting.
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The team couldn't agree on a final budget.
Where does couldn't come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a contraction of 'could not', joining the verb 'could' with a shortened 'not'. The word 'could' descends from Old English 'cuthe', the past tense of 'cunnan', which meant 'to know' or 'to be able'. Curiously, the modern spelling owes its silent 'l' to a mistake: 'could' had no 'l' originally, but scribes added one in the 1500s to make it match 'would' and 'should', which genuinely came from words containing an 'l'. The 'n't' ending represents 'not' with the vowel squeezed out, marked by the apostrophe that stands in for the missing letter. The result is a word with both a silent 'l' and a vanished 'o', which is exactly why writers sometimes misplace the apostrophe or drop a letter.
How the word is built
- could (past tense of 'can')
- n't (contracted form of 'not')
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