We'd

How to spell we'd

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce we'd

What does we'd mean?

1. otherContraction of 'we would', expressing a conditional intention or preference.
2. otherContraction of 'we had', used as an auxiliary in past perfect constructions.

We'd in a sentence

• We'd love to visit if the flights were cheaper.

• By noon we'd already finished the entire report.

• We'd prefer to leave before the traffic builds up.

• We'd never seen anything like it before that day.

Where does we'd come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction that fuses the Old English pronoun 'we' with a shortened form of either 'would' or 'had'. The pronoun 'we' descends from Old English 'we', a native Germanic word with cousins across the Germanic languages such as Dutch 'wij' and German 'wir'. The attached 'd represents 'would' (from Old English 'wolde', the past of 'willan', meaning 'to want or intend') or 'had' (from Old English 'hæfde', the past of 'habban', 'to have'). The apostrophe marks the spot where the missing letters were squeezed out, a convention that English settled into during the seventeenth century as written contractions became respectable. Because the result sounds exactly like the unrelated word 'weed', the apostrophe is the only thing on the page that tells the reader which is meant, which is precisely the spelling trap to watch.

How the word is built

• we (first person plural pronoun)
• 'd (contracted 'would' or 'had')

Words that sound like we'd

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• weed: A wild plant growing where it is not wanted, especially among cultivated crops or in a garden.