How to pronounce "What'd" correctly?

Johnny   Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:39 am GMT
I think it is interesting to note that "wuh jew", apart from the fact it could mean either "would you" or "what did" in American English, in many (some?) varieties of British English it can mean "what do", and not "what did". That's interesting, we talked about that in another thread.

These two can sound the same in AmE:
Would you think of that?
What did you think of that?

These two can sound the same in BrE:
Would you think of that?
What do you think of that?
English_Obsessed   Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:24 pm GMT
Shit! In spoken English it's so difficult to distinguish between all those similar sounds. And, by the way, when asking this question I had this short scene from "Jay and silent Bob strike back" on my mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w9pMgOHVnw
So, after they got caught , Jay asked: what the f*ck Serpico, what'd we do? That happened at 3:55
I know that for sure, because I've seen this phrase in subtitles as well, but I'm still not sure what's the difference in pronunciation between "What'd we do" and "What we do". I know that the latter is not grammatically correct, but to me those phrases sound the same.
I would appreciate if you guys, comment on it.
Carol   Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:19 pm GMT
I'm a native speaker, from Michigan, and I pronounce it as only one syllable -- whud.
Guest   Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:31 pm GMT
<<I think it is interesting to note that "wuh jew", apart from the fact it could mean either "would you" or "what did" in American English>>

But they don't sound the same. The vowel is different...
Carol   Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:41 pm GMT
I don't know how that got posted again. Hmmm...
Buddy   Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:30 pm GMT
"it'd" can be a contraction of it + would, not only it + did

"Is that what it'd be if I told you it was mine?" or "It'd be like this if you took care of business"

I pronounce both "it'd"s as one syllable ("id")