Ellipsis with "better"?

[nq:1]The construction "We better go now" is now almost idiomatic in English these days. Is the omission of the "had" an example of ellipsis or some other process?[/nq]
"Had"? I have always thought that"would" is the missing one.
[nq:1]What part of speech or function does "better" serve here?[/nq]
Adverb.
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Saludos cordiales
Javi
Mood conjugation:
I enjoy a drop

[nq:2]The construction "We better go now" is now almost idiomatic ... the "had" an example of ellipsis or some other process?[/nq]
[nq:1]"Had"? I have always thought that"would" is the missing one.[/nq]
Definitely "had". It's a hard construction to explain. Let me just paste some 19th century examples from the 543 hits at Mastertexts.com, to prove that it's been around for a while:
(Di

[nq:1]The construction "We better go now" is now almost idiomatic in English these days. Is the omission of the "had" an example of ellipsis or some other process? What part of speech or function does "better" serve here?[/nq]
I'd say it's beyond "almost". It must be more than twenty years since The Who sang "You better, you bet".
Adrian

[nq:1]The construction "We better go now" is now almost idiomatic in English these days. Is the omission of the "had" an example of ellipsis or some other process?[/nq]
I always thought it was "We'd better go now" and people were swallowing the 'd.
Someone else Javi maybe said it was an adverb. Since it's in some way modifying a verb, he must be right.

Dena Jo
Delete "delete.t

[nq:1]I always thought it was "We'd better go now" and people were swallowing the 'd. Someone else Javi maybe said it was an adverb. Since it's in some way modifying a verb, he must be right.[/nq]
Ah, just like the "should" in "We should go now"?
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

[nq:2]"Had"? I have always thought that"would" is the missing one.[/nq]
[nq:1]Definitely "had". It's a hard construction to explain. Let me just paste some 19th century examples from the 543 hits ... both the young gentlemen's beds, Ma'am," says Betsinda. (Dickens) I think we had best not speak to him just now[/nq]
*Merriam-Webster's Collegiate,* 11th ed., shows the "best" in "had best" an

[nq:2]The construction "We better go now" is now almost idiomatic ... the "had" an example of ellipsis or some other process?[/nq]
[nq:1]I always thought it was "We'd better go now" and people were swallowing the 'd. Someone else Javi maybe said it was an adverb. Since it's in some way modifying a verb, he must be right.[/nq]
Probably, but it's such an idiomatic, that it's hard to tell. It

[nq:1]*Merriam-Webster's Collegiate,* 11th ed., shows the "best" in "had best" and the "better" in "had better" as having developed into verbal auxiliaries:[/nq]
But they don't list the negative "bettn't" (or "bett'n't"), which I've only encountered from British writers.

Evan Kirshenbaum + HP Laboratories >The General Theorem of Usenet
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[nq:2]*Merriam-Webster's Collegiate,* 11th ed., shows the "best" in "had best" and the "better" in "had better" as having developed into verbal auxiliaries:[/nq]
[nq:1]But they don't list the negative "bettn't" (or "bett'n't"), which I've only encountered from British writers.[/nq]
In my experience, this occurs only in tag questions: "I'd better do that, bettn't I?"

Peter Moylan (

>
I had long thought that there were other words missing. Consider the related construction with "will":
"We think that we will do better to take the freeway." where "better" does not look like a verb.
Maybe the "had better" sentence was originally
"We will have had done better to take the freeway." No wonder they dropped a few words. Yea, language change.

However, the