woulda

English

Etymology

Eye dialect form of a reduction of would have.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈwʊdə/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʊdə

Contraction

woulda

  1. (colloquial) Contraction of would +‎ have.
    You woulda told him the truth.
    • 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, →ISBN, page 396:
      Otherwise I just woulda dunked you instead a bringing you here to my spread.

Usage notes

Like other similarly formed contractions, speakers only use woulda to replace the modal sense of would have, i.e. where have precedes a past participle: We woulda come if you'd called. They do not use it to replace would followed by the verb have used lexically, e.g. *We woulda a reason. (We would have a reason would be contracted to We'd have a reason instead.) See also gonna.

Derived terms

See also

Category:English contractions

Jamaican Creole

Etymology

From English would.

Verb

woulda

  1. would
    Gyal, mi cyaan believe yuh woulda do dat to mi.
    Girl, I can't believe you would do that to me.