Would

How to spell would

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce would

What does would mean?

1. verbA modal verb used to express a wish, a polite request, a hypothetical situation, or habitual past action.

Would in a sentence

• I would love to come.

• I would love a cup of tea, thanks.

Where does would come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word 'would' is the past tense of 'will', and it descends from the Old English verb 'willan', meaning 'to wish' or 'to want', whose past form was 'wolde'. The shared root runs through the older Germanic languages and is related to the Latin 'velle', meaning 'to wish', the source of words like 'volition' and 'voluntary'. Over many centuries 'wolde' was smoothed in speech into the single syllable we say today, yet the spelling kept its old letters, including an 'l' that we no longer pronounce. That silent 'l' was reinforced by analogy with 'should' and 'could', which lined up as a tidy trio of modal past forms; ironically the 'l' in 'could' was added by mistaken imitation, but all three now share the same look. Because 'would' sounds exactly like 'wood', the timber word, the resemblance, not the spelling itself, is the main trap for adult writers.

How the word is built

• would (past tense of 'will', from Old English 'wolde'; the silent 'l' is a frozen historical spelling)

Words that sound like would

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

• wood: The hard fibrous material that forms the trunk and branches of a tree, used as timber or fuel.