Word
they'd
Phoneticstheyd
Definitions
01they would
pron. a short way of saying 'they would'.
pron. a contraction of 'they' and 'would', used to express conditional actions or past habits.
“They said they'd come to the party if they finished work early.”
“The researchers predicted they'd find a correlation between the two variables, provided the sample size was sufficiently large.”
Usage
Followed by the base form of a verb (without 'to').
Teaching tip
Learners can identify this sense by looking for a base verb immediately following the contraction.
02they had
pron. a short way of saying 'they had'.
pron. a contraction of 'they' and 'had', typically used as an auxiliary in the past perfect tense.
“By the time I arrived, they'd already finished dinner.”
“The witnesses claimed they'd seen the vehicle parked outside the warehouse several hours before the alarm was triggered.”
Usage
Followed by a past participle (e.g., 'gone', 'seen', 'done').
Teaching tip
Help students distinguish this from 'they would' by checking if the following verb is a past participle.
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