We'll

How to spell we'll

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce we'll

What does we'll mean?

1. verbA contraction of 'we will' or 'we shall', used to state a future action or intention by the speaker and others.

We'll in a sentence

• If the train is late, we'll take a taxi to the meeting instead.

• Once the deposit clears, we'll confirm the booking by email.

Where does we'll come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction of the pronoun 'we' joined to the auxiliary verb 'will' (or sometimes 'shall'). 'We' descends from Old English 'we', a Germanic word for the first-person plural that has close cousins in Dutch 'wij' and German 'wir'. 'Will' comes from Old English 'willan', meaning 'to wish, to want, to be willing', so the original idea behind a future statement was one of intention or desire rather than pure prediction. The apostrophe in 'we'll' is not decorative: it stands in for the missing letters 'wi' of 'will', a written convention that spread as contractions became respectable in print from the seventeenth century onward. Because the spoken form sounds exactly like 'wheel' and the older word 'weal', the apostrophe and the doubled l are the only things on the page that signal the contraction, which is precisely where writers slip.

How the word is built

• we (first-person plural pronoun)
• 'll (contracted form of will or shall, with the apostrophe marking the dropped letters)

Words that sound like we'll

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

• wheel: A circular object that turns on an axle, used to move a vehicle or machine.