You couldn’t’ve been serious!

As you already know, we often use certain modal verbs plus the present perfect when making deductions about the past, criticizing past actions or in conditionals.  And as you know, the present perfect is composed of have + past participle. 

1) When speaking, it’s common to contract the modal verb and “have”. For example:

Could have  = could’ve  (kud-obf) 
We could’ve gone to the beach. (conditional)

Might have  = might’ve  (mait-obf) 
They might’ve recognized you. (deduction)

Must have   = must’ve   (must-obf) 
He must’ve forgotten her birthday! (deduction)

Should have = should’ve (schud-obf) 
You should’ve called the doctor before! (criticism)

Would have  = would’ve  (uud-obf) 
I would’ve accepted the offer. (conditional)

The Spanish phonetics of the contractions are in parenthesis. The contraction ‘ve sounds like the word of.

2) Of course, we can’t forget about the negative forms. Here, we have the phenomenon of double contractions! Check these out!

Cannot have     = can’t’ve  (kent-obf) 
He can’t’ve forgotten her birthday!      

Could not have  = couldn’t’ve (kud-end-obf) 
We couldn’t’ve gone to the beach.         

Might not have  = mightn’t’ve (mait-ent-obf) 
They mightn’t’ve recognized you.   

Should not have = shouldn’tve (schud-ent-obf) 
You shouldn’t’ve called the doctor before!

Would not have = wouldn’t’ve (uud-ent-obf) 
I wouldn’t’ve accepted the offer.

3) There are even triple contractions for you. As you know you we can contract pronouns and “would”. Now let’s contract them even further with “have”

I would have      = I’d’ve (aid-obf) 
I’d’ve accepted the offer.

You would have  = You’d’ve (iud-obf) 
You’d’ve accepted the offer.

He would have    = He’d’ve (jid-obf) 
He’d’ve accepted the offer.

She would have  = She’d’ve (schid-obf) 
She’d’ve accepted the offer.

We would have   = We’d’ve  (uid-obf) 
We’d’ve accepted the offer.

They would have = They’d’ve (zeid-obf) 
They’d’ve accepted the offer.

Now listen to the contractions in the recording below.






These contractions may look scary, they may even sound scary! But really, they’re quite harmless and innocent! Let them be your friends!