Couldan't, shouldan't, wouldan't :) :)

[Tamara]

Hi

Doing some other things, I’ve just encountered this piece of a ‘Google-reseach’ raised by the use of (ungrammatical) form would haven’t.

If we would haven’t gone to war there, I certainly wouldn’t have known that.

Maybe you find it interesting to take a look at. Even though it’s not very fresh.

modal…

-----modal-HAVE-n’t—modal-HAVE-not—modal-n’t-HAVE— modal-not-HAVE
…

TOTALS:—17,907--------111,468----------------3,655,900 ----------4,647,310

itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language … 01291.html

P.S. I didn’t check the data presented.

[Yankee]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
woulda…
shoulda…
coulda…

Thanks for the article, Tamara!
You know, my initial reaction to “would haven’t” was exactly the same as the author’s: I also couldn’t imagine anyone ever actually saying something so utterly ungrammatical. Never.

But after reading the author’s theory, it started to sound more possible — in spoken English. :shock:

But still…I attempted to pronounce “woulda-n’t” and found it next to impossible to do satisfactorily. I guess I shouldan’t bothered trying… :lol:

Amy

[Tamara]

Hi Amy

I attempted to pronounce “woulda-n’t” and found it next to impossible to do satisfactorily.

Hmm. To me it’s even more simple than [wudnt].
But, of course, I am not sure at all in ‘satisfactoriness’ of my pronunciation