AAAmerican Accent US
Illustration: the history of the word should
shoulsilentd
A sound people stopped saying

Why is the L in should silent?

Should comes from Old English sceolde, and its L was really pronounced. It wore away because the word is so often unstressed — just like would.

Then · Old English

sċolde

said like SHOL-deh

early modern English↓

Now · American English

should/ʃʊd/

said SHUD, rhymes with good

The story

Should is the past tense of shall. In Old English it was sċolde, from sċulan, "to owe, to have to" — a sense of obligation that the word still carries. Middle English wrote it scholde, and the L was pronounced, as it still is in German sollte.

Would has the same story: Old English wolde, past tense of will, with a real L. Both are tiny, extremely common words that usually sit in an unstressed position in the sentence, and weak syllables lose consonants. The L wore away, probably during or after the early modern period, and only the spelling kept it.

Their real L then spread to a word that never had one: could, which English writers respelled in the 1500s to match. So should and would have lost Ls, and could has a borrowed one.

How the word changed

  1. 1

    Old English

    sċolde

    Past tense of sċulan (shall). The L is pronounced.

  2. 2

    Middle English

    scholde, sholde

    Still pronounced with L.

  3. 3

    Early modern English

    should

    The L wears away in this often-unstressed word.

Listen + practice

Hear “should” spoken naturally

Pick a sentence to record

Read the sentence aloud. Keep the stress on the particle and run the two words together — we’ll score every sound and flag what to work on.

Click to record

Questions people ask

+Why is should spelled with an L?

Because it was once pronounced: Old English sċolde. The L was lost in speech, probably because the word is usually unstressed.

+Why do should, would and could all have an L?

Should and would had a real L that was later lost. Could never had one — it was added in the 1500s to match the other two.

More words with a story

couldKUD, rhymes with good

Could never had an L. It was coude in Middle English; the L was copied in the 1500s from would and should, whose L really was once pronounced.

walkWAWK

Walk comes from Old English wealcan, and the L was once pronounced. Speech dropped it in the early modern period, along with the L of talk and chalk.

halfHAF

Half comes from Old English healf, with a pronounced L. Speakers later dropped the L before F, as in calf — the spelling kept the old sound.

Part of

Why is the L in should silent?