How Natives Really Speak: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Aww yeah, RealLifers, what is going on?

Today I have a really awesome and exciting lesson on COULDA, WOULDA, and SHOULDA!

So COULDA, WOULDA, and SHOULDA, are actually the contractions of the contractions of

COULD HAVE, WOULD HAVE, and SHOULD HAVE.

"Could Have” contracts into “Could’ve” and “Coulda.”

“Should have” becomes “Should’ve” and “Shoulda.”

And “Would Have” becomes “Would’ve” and “Woulda.”

Now while many people will tell you this is totally colloquial, slang, not correct,

we actually use this in everyday language, we use this in presentations,

in all formal and informal English situations.

You cannot, however, use this in formal writing.

It’s okay to use SHOULDA, COULDA, and WOULDA in informal text messages or chats.

So Coulda, Woulda, and Shoulda, or also the pronunciation of “Could Have” “Would

Have” and “Should Have” are used across the English language in a variety of senses,

but today to start with I wanted to focus on COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA as an expression.

This expression really helps us understand why Shoulda, Coulda, and Woulda are known

as the modals of lost opportunity.

We all know people who need to hear this expression.

The people who always lament or complain or cry about lost opportunities.

They imagine their lives in what “COULDA been” in what “SHOULDA been,”

in what “WOULDA been,” the people who always live life in terms of thinking

about lost opportunities, who always live in the hypothetical, who always say, “oh,

I could have done better if I had studied harder,” or “I should have done this,”

or “if I had only known, I would have done this.”

So “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda” is more like “you know, Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, but

you didn’t- so let’s get down to action, let’s change our lives now.”

Okay now let’s look at the crazy pronunciation of “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda.”

How do we get COULDA from “Could’ve” or SHOULDA from “Should’ve” or WOULDA

from “Would’ve”- or what about “A-LOT-A” from A LOT OF.

Well, the truth is this is a rule, it’s a tendency, it’s a pattern that happens

across all native, American, especially, connected speech.

Okay, so the pattern is, whenever we have the “UV" (sound) which is present in the word OF,

or the ‘VE contraction with HAVE on many words, like COULD'VE, it’s reduced to “A,”

and you see this in COULDA, from COULD’VE, or WOULDA from WOULD’VE, or SHOULDA from

SHOULD’VE, but you also see this in other words, like for example, A LOT OF becomes

“A LOT A,” ONE OF THESE becomes “ONE A THESE.”

I’M OUT OF HERE becomes “I’M OUTA HERE.”

Okay, if that wasn’t crazy enough, things are about to get really crazy with the negative

forms of WOULD NOT HAVE, SHOULD NOT HAVE, and COULD NOT HAVE

which become WOULD’NA, SHOULD’NA, and COULD’NA.

So to understand how you can take COULD NOT HAVE and make it COULD’NA, you have to understand

how this reduces, how this contracts on different levels.

On the first level, COULD NOT HAVE, you can easily make this into a contraction.

I COULDN’T’VE.

I COULDN’T’VE.

If you look at COULDN’T’VE, you have that NT contraction, which is similar to, for example,

how native speakers use INTERNET, and how we reduce that to INNERNET, so COULDN’T’VE

easily becomes COULDN’VE and as I was just explaining with WOULDA, COULDA, and SHOULDA,

the ‘VE sound is often reduced to “A,” so COULDN’VE easily becomes COULDN’A,

so in this sense all of these contractions, it’s the same thing.

The pronunciation on this one is not as simple as SHOULDA, COULDA, and WOULDA, but let me

actually give you some examples now for you to practice and imitate me.

So, for example:

I WOULDN’A DONE THAT

YOU SHOULDN’A DONE THAT

HE COULDN’A DONE THAT

Aww yeah, I hope you enjoyed that lesson.

On a final note, I really wanna encourage you to open your ears and open your perception

to the way that native speakers really speak- in the TV shows, the movies, the music you

listen to, and these youtube videos.

Notice how we cut our words, how we connect them, how we reduce them.

This is much different than we learn in the grammar books, and it’s gonna constantly change.

So liberate yourself from the way that you expect native speakers to speak, and have

fun paying attention and open your mind to the way that we really do speak in real life.

If you DUG (enjoyed) this lesson, I really encourage you to give it a like, give it a

share, and if you find this channel valuable, subscribe- it really helps us get the word out.

Also, if you wanna go deeper into some of these awesome pronunciation lessons then we

have a really great awesome 3 part mini-course using some really dynamic hilarious friends scenes

to teach you exactly what we learned today.

Aww yeah!