"could've" meaning in English

See could've in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /ˈkʊdəv/ [US], /ˈkʊdə/ [US] Audio: en-us-could've.ogg [US]
Rhymes: -ʊdəv Etymology: Etymology tree English could English -'ve English could've From could + -'ve. Etymology templates: {{ety|en|:af|could|-'ve|text=+|tree=1}} Etymology tree English could English -'ve English could've From could + -'ve. Head templates: {{head|en|verb form}} could've
  1. Contraction of could + have. Tags: abbreviation, alt-of, contraction Alternative form of: could (extra: + have) Synonyms: coulda Translations (contraction): (él) pudo haber (note: preterit indicative) (Spanish), (él) podía haber [imperfect, indicative] (Spanish), (él) podría haber [conditional, indicative] (Spanish), pudiese/pudiera haber (alt: si (él)) [past, subjunctive] (Spanish), (él) hubo podido (note: preterit perfect) (Spanish), (él) había podido [imperfect, perfect] (Spanish), (él) habría podido [conditional, perfect] (Spanish), hubiese/hubiera podido (english: can be sentence ending) (alt: si (él)) [past, perfect, subjunctive] (Spanish), pudiese (english: sentence ending) (alt: si (él)) (Spanish), pudiera (english: sentence ending) (alt: si (él)) (Spanish)

Alternative forms

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        "2": ":af",
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        "text": "+",
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      "expansion": "Etymology tree\nEnglish could\nEnglish -'ve\nEnglish could've\nFrom could + -'ve.",
      "name": "ety"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nEnglish could\nEnglish -'ve\nEnglish could've\nFrom could + -'ve.",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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          "extra": "+ have",
          "word": "could"
        }
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      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries referencing missing etymons",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              3,
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        }
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        "Contraction of could + have."
      ],
      "id": "en-could've-en-verb-Cm9cpFqW",
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          "have",
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        {
          "word": "coulda"
        }
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        "alt-of",
        "contraction"
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      "translations": [
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "note": "preterit indicative",
          "sense": "contraction",
          "word": "(él) pudo haber"
        },
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "contraction",
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            "imperfect",
            "indicative"
          ],
          "word": "(él) podía haber"
        },
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "contraction",
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          "word": "(él) podría haber"
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          "alt": "si (él)",
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            "subjunctive"
          ],
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        },
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "note": "preterit perfect",
          "sense": "contraction",
          "word": "(él) hubo podido"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "contraction",
          "tags": [
            "imperfect",
            "perfect"
          ],
          "word": "(él) había podido"
        },
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "contraction",
          "tags": [
            "conditional",
            "perfect"
          ],
          "word": "(él) habría podido"
        },
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          "code": "es",
          "english": "can be sentence ending",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "contraction",
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            "past",
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            "subjunctive"
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          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "contraction",
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          "word": "pudiera"
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      "ipa": "/ˈkʊdəv/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
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      "ipa": "/ˈkʊdə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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      "audio": "en-us-could've.ogg",
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      "tags": [
        "US"
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    {
      "rhymes": "-ʊdəv"
    }
  ],
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}
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        "4": "-'ve",
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    }
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        "English verb forms",
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        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
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              3,
              11
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        "Contraction of could + have."
      ],
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          "have",
          "have#English"
        ]
      ],
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      "ipa": "/ˈkʊdəv/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkʊdə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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      "audio": "en-us-could've.ogg",
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      "word": "coulda"
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    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "note": "preterit indicative",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "word": "(él) pudo haber"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "tags": [
        "imperfect",
        "indicative"
      ],
      "word": "(él) podía haber"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "tags": [
        "conditional",
        "indicative"
      ],
      "word": "(él) podría haber"
    },
    {
      "alt": "si (él)",
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "subjunctive"
      ],
      "word": "pudiese/pudiera haber"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "note": "preterit perfect",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "word": "(él) hubo podido"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "tags": [
        "imperfect",
        "perfect"
      ],
      "word": "(él) había podido"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "tags": [
        "conditional",
        "perfect"
      ],
      "word": "(él) habría podido"
    },
    {
      "alt": "si (él)",
      "code": "es",
      "english": "can be sentence ending",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "perfect",
        "subjunctive"
      ],
      "translation": "can be sentence ending",
      "word": "hubiese/hubiera podido"
    },
    {
      "alt": "si (él)",
      "code": "es",
      "english": "sentence ending",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "translation": "sentence ending",
      "word": "pudiese"
    },
    {
      "alt": "si (él)",
      "code": "es",
      "english": "sentence ending",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "contraction",
      "translation": "sentence ending",
      "word": "pudiera"
    }
  ],
  "word": "could've"
}

Download raw JSONL data for could've meaning in English (3.4kB)

{
  "called_from": "page/2530",
  "msg": "skipping string in the middle of translations: </table></div></div>\n\n",
  "path": [
    "could've"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "verb",
  "title": "could've",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (e79dea5 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.