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

• woulda, coulda, shoulda

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.