There'll

How to spell there'll

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce there'll

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does there'll mean?

1. otherA contraction of 'there will', used to state that something will exist or happen.

There'll in a sentence

• There'll be plenty of food at the reception.

• If the train is late, there'll be a long queue at the platform.

Where does there'll come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction stitching together two very old native English words. The first part, 'there', descends from Old English 'thaer', which meant 'in or at that place', and it had become an existential placeholder (as in 'there is') by the medieval period. The second part, the '-'ll' ending, is a clipped form of 'will', from Old English 'willan', meaning 'to want' or 'to intend', the same root that gave us the modern sense of future intention. Contractions like this, where the auxiliary verb is reduced to a syllable and joined with an apostrophe, became common in writing during the seventeenth century as people began representing relaxed speech on the page. The apostrophe stands in for the missing letters 'wi', which is the single fact worth remembering when spelling it. Because 'there' shares its sound with 'their' and 'they're', the contraction is endlessly muddled with 'they'll', even though only 'there'll' begins with the place word 'there'.

How the word is built

• there (adverb of place / existential subject)
• 'll (contraction of 'will'); the apostrophe marks the dropped letters 'wi' from 'will'