Would've

How to spell would've

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce would've

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does would've mean?

1. verbA contraction of 'would have', expressing a hypothetical or unrealised past action.

Would've in a sentence

• I would've called you sooner if my phone had been charged.

• She would've taken the earlier train had she known about the delay.

Where does would've come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a spoken contraction of 'would have', stitching together two very old Germanic words. 'Would' descends from the Old English wolde, the past tense of willan, a verb meaning 'to wish' or 'to want', which is also the ancestor of the modern 'will'. 'Have' comes from the Old English habban, meaning 'to hold' or 'to possess', here doing grammatical duty as an auxiliary rather than meaning literal possession. The apostrophe in would've marks exactly where the 'ha' of 'have' has been swallowed in rapid speech, leaving a weak schwa sound. That sound is precisely the trap: because the reduced 'have' is pronounced like 'of', many fluent writers slip into the non-standard 'would of', but the apostrophe form is the only correct one in writing.

How the word is built

• would (past-tense modal verb)
• 've (contraction of have)