: Re: What combination of had and 'd makes prose flow better? An example from my writing: Not even a god like Kiyoshi deserved an angel like Kobayashi. True, I had never talked to her. But

@Deb2945533

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The 'd contraction defaults to expansion into would. It takes a second guess basing on trailing content to expand it to had instead. As result you're creating mild garden-path sentences, which, when unintended, is a type of stylistic error.

Use this contraction only for would where it naturally falls into speech ("I'd like...", "I'd rather...") - and when creating flavor speech, a character that abuses contractions, sometimes hard to understand, hurried, or just crude. Otherwise, if you have no good reason not to, just use the full form, had.

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