Oct 30, 2017 · woulda, maya, mighta, musta, shoulda, coulda /wʊdə, meyə, maytə, məstə, ʃʊdə, kʊdə/ Willa is unusual, because will have is unusual; normally will prefers to contract with a subject (ideally a personal pronoun) rather than with a following have.

(also preserved in coulda, woulda). Similar expressions like gonna (going to) and wanna (want to) have a less clear origin. From BBC.co.uk: Wanna and gonna are frequently used in speech in informal colloquial English, particularly American English, instead of ‘want to’ and ‘going to’.

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Apr 9, 2019 · @tchrist "[woulda] is clearly a misspelling of would've just as much as would of is." — not to me. I perceive the first as intentional mangling of written language, hopefully by someone who knows how to write correctly if needed. The latter to me is clearly a mistake made by someone who picks sounds from the air and puts them to paper so to ...

Jan 22, 2012 · What is the proper usage of the word thunk? According to Merriam-Webster, it is dialect past and past participle of think Can it be used in a formal context?

Dec 1, 2011 · I instinctively said I would have had to have been over 180 lbs for that to have happened. I thought that seemed overly wordy. Too many "have"s and "had"s. So I tried: I would have had to be...

From The Phrase Finder: "If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?" seems to be attributed to Don Meredith (the American football player/ commentator).

A personal pet peeve of mine is the seemingly obligatory "I would like to thank . . ." that begins many speeches.

@Kendall: What MetaEd only hints at is that "have ate" is indeed grammatical in several US Northeast dialects. Though even there, if I am not mistaken, it is more commonly triggered not by have alone, but rather by coulda/shoulda/woulda, or in negations (i.e. "haven't ate").

Aug 24, 2023 · may could, may can, may will, may shall, may should, may supposed to, might could, might oughta, might can, might should, might would, might better, might had better, may used to, might supposed to, might've used to, may need to, and might woulda had oughta (the last four are listed with no intervening punctuation; I don't know if it's a typo ...