Shoulda Woulda Coulda American English Pronunciation
Have you ever heard someone say shoulda?
“Oh yeah, I shoulda done that!”
What’s it mean? In this American English
pronunciation video, you’re going to learn
about shoulda, woulda, coulda.
‘Shoulda’ is a reduction of ‘should
have’. I made a video years ago about dropping
the H in words like ‘have’ – we do it
all the time in spoken American English. But
in ‘shoulda’, we’re going a lot further
than just dropping the H. We’re reducing
the AA vowel to the schwa, and we’re dropping
the V sound. All we’re left with is the
schwa, uh, uh. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Note
that the L is silent in these words, and they
all have the UH vowel, as in ‘book’, where
the lips flare a little and there’s some
tension in the back of the tongue as it lifts
a bit. Uh, should, uh, would, uh, could.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Let’s look at some sentences.
I shoulda been there.
You coulda been hurt!
I shoulda seen it coming.
I woulda been there.
We coulda tried harder.
I woulda thought so.
Sometimes I pronounce these words like this,
all the way reduced, and sometimes I make
a light V sound, vv, vv, vv. There’s no
reason why I do it one way or another, I just
know that I do, and you’ll probably hear
it both ways.
Now, you don’t want to try to write them
this way, but speaking? Yes, do it. These
reductions sound like natural American English.
Shoulda, woulda coulda. Shoulda, woulda, coulda:
these three words together is a phrase we
use sometimes to say ‘oh well’.
Man, I wish I had bought Apple stock ten
years ago.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Bonus:
Let’s learn the negative too:
Should not have. Americans will say this:
shouldn-uh. Drop the word ‘not’ and just
make an N sound. So it’s going to sound
like two or three syllables, depending on
how fast you transition from D to N: shouldn’t-uh.
Right after ‘should’, hold out an N: shouldnnnnn.
The tongue position for D and N is almost
the same. Shouldnnnnnnnnnn-uh. Then just release
the tongue to make the schwa. Shouldn-uh,
shouldn-uh. This is the same for couldn’t
have, couldna, and wouldn’t have, wouldna.
Let’s look at some example sentences:
Shouldn’t have, shouldna.
I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.
It shouldn’t have started already. Shouldna.
Couldn’t have, couldna.
You couldn’t have known.
We couldn’t have made it anyway.
Couldna, couldna.
Wouldn’t have, wouldna.
I wouldn’t have said that.
It wouldn’t have mattered.
Wouldna, wouldna.
I hope you’ll now be more comfortable identifying
these phrases when you hear them, and reducing
them yourself in conversation.
If there’s a word or phrase you’d like
help pronouncing, please put it in the comments
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That’s it, and thanks so much for using
Rachel’s English.