should've
/ˈʃʊdəv/contraction
should've is spelled S-H-O-U-L-D-V-E. The wrong spelling people search most is shouldve: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Should've is a contraction meaning “Contraction of should + have”.
How many letters and syllables are in should've?
| Letters | 8: S-H-O-U-L-D-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,138th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, shouldve, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell should've?
Should've is spelled S-H-O-U-L-D-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for should've in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is should've?
Should've appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce should've?
- US /ˈʃʊdəv/
- British /ˈʃɵdəv/
- /ˈʃʉdəv/
Should've has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-should've.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with should've?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as should've from its last stressed vowel (/ʊdəv/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does should've mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
contraction
- 1
Contraction of should + have.
He should've arrived earlier.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Should've in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense contraction:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | debió haber (de), debía haber (de), debería haber (de), debiese/debiera haber (de), (él) habría, hubiese |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does should've come from?
From should + -'ve.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).