Quote:
Originally Posted by BobK  That's an interesting view. Reflecting on my own usage in less formal contexts, the /d/ of I'd assimilates to the /b/ of better, becoming an unreleased bilabial closure (but still voiced). This may sound fairly similar to 'I better' in most respects (it'd take either a speech spectrograph or a sensitive listener to tell the difference - mainly, a longer closure), but there is a difference. The failure to produce that difference isn't a feature of standard English (not of BE anyway - I have no idea what they do in Canada  ).
b |
By far, the most common use worldwide seems to be "S + better + verb". This is not surprising because these types of "recently developed semi-modals ... are common in conversation but virtually non-existent in written exposition. Interestingly, BrE has been more innovative recently in the use of semi-modals than AmE".
[material in quotes from the LGSWE]
A UK pages only google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 664,000 for "You better".
Results 1 - 10 of about 290,000 for "You'd better".
Results 1 - 10 of about 123,000 for "You had better".
Looks like it's in pretty standard usage in the old UK, Bob.
A regular google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 7,040,000 English pages for "You better".
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,250,000 English pages for "You'd better".
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,060,000 English pages for "You had better".