Would + not + have = “wouldn’t have” | Part 3

would + not + have = wouldn't 've

Pronunciation of Contracted Verbs | Part 3

English Pronunciation Lesson

Play the audio with the lesson:

Series on Verb Contractions in English

Part 1: Intro to Verb Contractions and their Pronunciations (have + will)
Part 2: Would + have = “would’ve”
Part 3: Would + not + have = “wouldn’t have”
Part 4: Could + have = “could’ve”
Part 5: May + have = [meyəv]
Part 6: Must + have = “must’ve”

Introduction

Negative | “Wouldn’t have” [wʊdɪnəv]

When native English speakers negate the contracted verb “would’ve”, they sometimes also de-stress the “not” (which is usually a stressed content word) and very subtly pronounce a [n] sound between the “would” and the [əv].

would + not + have → *”wouldn’t’ve” –> [wʊɪnəv]

Note

1) When we write “wouldn’t have”, we say but do not write the contracted spelling of “have” as "'ve". "n’t’ve” is written here for explanatory purposes only.

2) The de-stressing of "have" explains why a common misspelling seen on the internet is writing "have" as "of".

How to Say “Wouldn’t have” in Everyday English

“would” + “not”
“wouldn’t” + “have”
“wouldn’t have”
*“wouldn’t’ve”

→ “wouldn’t” [wʊdɪnt]
→ [wʊdɪnt hæv]
→ [wʊdɪnt tæv]
→ [wʊdɪnəv]

1. I deleted the [h] in “have” due to h-deletion

2. connected the consonants + vowels with connected speech

3. de-stressed the vowel [æ] in “have” → [əv] = [wʊdɪnt təv]

4. deleted the consonant [t] at the end of “wouldn’t” for more efficiency and music. [wʊdɪntəv] → [wʊdɪnəv]

5. When speaking casually, we sometimes soften and almost delete the [d] sound in “wouldn’t”: [wʊdɪnəv] → [wʊɪnəv]

Now, can you see why English is sometimes difficult to understand?

It’s not that native English speakers speak fast, but we delete sounds and connect our words to transform the speech. This means that spoken English is practically a different language than written English!

Learn and practice these rules of pronunciation to improve your listening and comprehension skills.

Let’s practice.

Listen and Repeat

“I wouldn’t have gone if you had just told me to stay home.”
“If I had known you were fluent in English, I wouldn’t have practiced French with you!”
“She wouldn’t have studied so hard had she known the test was going to be so easy!” (“going to –> “gonna“)
“I wouldn’t have earned so much money if I hadn’t worked so hard.”

Series on Verb Contractions in English

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