I'd like to drink coffee.

Question

Consider the following sentence,"I'd like to drink coffee. "In this context, 'd is mean would,but does people use 'd to represent had, or any other word?Also, how we pronounce I'd?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

/aid/

I'd already thought of that. Here, 'd represents had.

Jack1234 · Answer

May I know all the words that we can use 'd as a shortcut?

Marius Hancu · Answer

>May I know all the words that we can use 'd as a shortcut?
even cont'd (continued) can be spelled this way:-)
thus there might be quite a long list ...

CalifJim · Answer

May I know all the words that ... use 'd as a shortcut?

I take it you want to know which words the 'd can possibly be a substitute for.

Only would and had normally fall into this category, if you're looking for full words (the 'd in cont'd being an abbreviation for the past tense ending ed).

I'd go. = I would go.
I'd gone. = I had gone.

I say normally, because in everyday conversational speech, the 'd can be a substitute for did after an initial question word, especially one that ends in a vowel sound.

Who'd you see?
Where'd you go?
How'd you get that?
Why'd you do that?

The 'd and y combination is usually pronounced as a j in these patterns.

CJ

Davkett · Answer

CalifJimThe 'd and y combination is usually pronounced as a j in these patterns.

I wonder if that's regional, or just sloppy pronunciation, CJ.

We have "Old York Road" near here. Some people say "Ol' Jork Road". Others make the d and y sound separately.

CalifJim · Answer

It's not regional (except insofar as it seems to me to be more AmE than BrE) and not sloppy, in my opinion -- unless you want to say also that British speakers who say "choon" for "tune" are sloppy.

It is "glide absorption", and it is the sine qua non of authentic American pronunciation.
Non-natives in the U.S. who cannot master this (and the intervocallic "t" as "d" when necessary) never sound as though they have an adequate command of American English, chiefly because everything they say sounds so excessively precise and measured, so inexperienced, so learned out of a book.

However, glide absorption is applied by natives preferentially to common groupings involving the forms of the pronoun "you" and to groupings with "year" ("next year", "last year" with the "ch" sound). For place names like Old York Road it is up to the local inhabitants to decide!

Note that word internal interfaces between the same consonant families form a case of required glide absorption. "picture", for example, cannot be said "pikt- yoor" in American English without eliciting a raised eyebrow or two. The same can be said for "soldier" said as "sold-yer" or "pressure" as "press- yoor", or "precious" as "press- yuss" and so on. It just happens that between words, the same combinations can occur, and there the tendency of speakers is to use the same phonetic transformations as within words. Between words glide absorption may be optional, but it is certainly not forbidden.

CJ

Davkett · Answer

CJ, I'm not without sympathy for some patterns of glide absorption between words. But the difference between Old York Road and Ol' Jork Road' or next year and nex' chear, or last year and las' chear seems easy to master, and has more to do with clear pronunciation than excessive precision. I don't think you hear this kind of thing on national TV (AmE). And you don't hear Sinatra singing it, either.

CalifJim · Answer

I don't think you hear this kind of thing on national TV (AmE).

That's just it! I do hear this kind of thing on national TV and among very educated people!
Nationally known journalists on panel discussions of the week's events will often say such things -- and "gonna" as well!

I don't think I'd hear Ol Jork, however, but I think that may be because it is a much less frequent combination. The more unfamiliar one is with an expression, the more likely that glide absorption will be suppressed.

Sinatra? (Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo?) How did he get into this?

CJ

Mister Micawber · Answer

the difference between... next year and nex' chear, or last year and las' chear

I'm not sure that this medium is subtle enough to deal with such differences, or differences of opinion. Glide absorption and other reductions and liaisons are analog in variation among individuals and regions, and difficult to transcribe, even with a full set of IPA characters. For instance, Dave's 'nex chear' does not sound, when I read it, too far off from what I would call-- and teach as-- a natural pronunciation. If I had to put the same phrase down here, I would write /neks tchi:r/ as my approximation; but I doubt all would accept that either.

CalifJim · Answer

Right. I'd have written /neks tshi:r/, but I think we all get the general idea.
To my ear it is remarkably close to /nekstji:r/ - the proper pronunciation, if you will (where j is y in 'yes' of course).

CJ

I'd like to drink coffee.

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