“What are you doing here?”
“Huh… Hey! Good morning, Master! I thought [color=red]I’d warm up a little.”
Is this [color=red]I’d here [color=red]I should, I would or either?
Thanks
I thought I would.
Why doesn’t “should” work here?
It works grammatically, but it does not fit into the natural conversation.
Hi Ruifeng,
The words ‘should’ and ‘could’ are never contracted with a preceding word.
How’s that for a nice absolute rule? 
[color=darkblue]____________________________________________________
[size=75]“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.” ~ Albert Einstein[/size]
So can we say " I thought I should warm up a little." ? If it worked this way, would [color=red]“I thought I would warm up a little.” also have what [color=red]“should” meant to say, the right thing to do?
Thanks
Hi Ruifeng,
As MM has said, ‘would’ is quite natural in the sentence. Basically that tells us about what the speaker had decided he wanted to do. At the moment of the decision, the speaker thought this to himself: “I think I will warm up a little.” The sentence you posted might be seen as a sort of reported speech version of that thought.
If ‘should’ were inserted into the sentence instead, I would understand that to mean something similar to ‘I thought it would be advisable to warm up a little’. So, yes, similar to ‘the right thing to do’.
[color=darkblue]________________________________________________________________
[size=75]“The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.” ~ Albert Einstein[/size]
So, “I thought I should warm up a little” gives a sense like “I thought I should warm up a little, but obviously I was wrong.” Right?
This person is my hero.
IMO I think to make it sound even more natural you should just go with “Thought I’d warm up a little”
You could interpret a sense of ‘but obviously I was wrong’ from the broader context, if that’s what you mean. Without the context you initially posted, the ‘should’ sentence itself would not suggest that. This is all strictly theoretical, though, since your original sentence did NOT contain ‘should’.
Your original sentence contained ‘I’d’ (I would). And that is still what I find natural – just like MM did.
[color=darkblue]___________________________________________________
[size=75]“Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.” ~ Albert Einstein[/size]