wouldn't

See also: wouldnt

English

Alternative forms

• wo'n't (archaic)
• wou'dn't (obsolete)
• wudn't (pronunciation spelling)
• wunt (Yorkshire, pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

Contraction of would not, equivalent to would +‎ -n't.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈwʊdn̩t/
  • (US) IPA^(key): [wʊdⁿn̩t], [wʊɾənt], [ˈwʊʔn̩t]
• (Yorkshire) IPA^(key): /ˈwʊnt/, [ˈwʊnʔ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ʊdn̩t, -ʊnt

Verb

wouldn't

1. would not (negative auxiliary^[1])
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.

Coordinate terms

• can't, couldn't, mayn't, mightn't, oughtn't, shan't, shouldn't, won't

See also

• Appendix:English modal verbs
• Appendix:English tag questions

References

1. Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513