confusion about would.

Question

A. Every day he would come from work and trun on the TV.
B. There would be very few people in seventeenth century in NYC.
C. People would buy things exchanging in nineteenth century.
D. Letters would be given to receivers by walking.
E. People wouldn't go to school.
Are these sentences correct with 'would'?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

A. Every day he would come from work and turn on the TV.
B. There would be very few people in New York City in the seventeenth century.
C. People would buy things exchanging??? in the nineteenth century.
D. Letters would be given to receivers by walking.???
E. People wouldn't go to school.

OK as corrected in blue. I don't understand what you're saying in C and D.

"would" is used grammatically in all. However, I can't be sure they all mean exactly what you think they mean. For example, for B I think you really mean There would have been very few people .... I also suspect that you did not intend E to mean People refused to go to school, which is what it means.

CJ

Tenjing · Answer

I am using 'would' to talk about characteristic behaviour and things that were always true.
Sentence 'E' means, people didn't know about school.
Sentence 'B' means, there were really few people in NYC that time.
Sentence 'C' means, at that time, there was no money discovered neither metal money nor paper money.
Sentence 'D' means, there was no roads, busses at that time.
Is my understanding correct??

Tenjing · Answer

Sorry,  I posted the same question twice. You don't need to answer it.

Tenjing · Answer

I mean not on the other thread. Please check my understanding with 'would'.

CalifJim · Answer

tenjingSentence 'E' means, people didn't know about school.

People [didn't go / wouldn't have gone] to school (because they [didn't know / wouldn't have known] about school.

For the past of would not you need would not have here.

The usage of would that you are trying to illustrate doesn't work with negation. Use only would, not would not for this usage.

tenjingSentence 'B' means, there were really few people in NYC that time.

That's what I thought you meant. Here, too, you need the construction with would have. Or something without would.

There [were / would have been] very few people in New York in the seventeenth century.

You can't do a sentence that illustrates the "would of past habits" (or the "would of characteristic behavior") when you don't have a habitual action in the sentence. The fact that there were not a lot a people in New York is not a habit or behavior. You need to talk about someone who does the same thing again and again. You should also put in a phrase that shows that the action occurs more than once, preferably at the beginning of the sentence.

Every summer Lucy would go to the beach and swim.

tenjingSentence 'C' means, at that time, there was no money discovered neither metal money nor paper money.

I see. That's confusing because money was used for thousands of years before the nineteenth century. You can say this:

The economy [ worked / would have worked] on a bartering system in the nineteenth century.

(Even though it isn't true.)

But if you want to describe a characteristic behavior:

In the nineteenth century people would trade their possessions instead of buying and selling them with money.

(Also not true, but the sentence is grammatical and idiomatic.)

tenjingSentence 'D' means, there was no roads, busses at that time.

Again, it's confusing because there were roads at that time. Not buses though. I believe you need this.

In those times mail [was / would have been] delivered on foot.

Your original sentence was about letters. "Letters" was the subject. Letters are inanimate. They can't have characteristic behaviors or habits, so you can't illustrate this kind of would with this kind of sentence.

CJ

GPY · Answer

tenjing I am using 'would' to talk about characteristic behaviour and things that were always true.Sentence 'E' means, people didn't know about school.Sentence 'B' means, there were really few people in NYC that time.Sentence 'C' means, at that time, there was no money discovered neither metal money nor paper money. Sentence 'D' means, there was no roads, busses at that time.Is my understanding correct??

(A) is correctly talking about characteristic behaviour ("come home from work" is more usual if that is what you mean). (C) and (D) would be probably be talking about characteristic behaviour if the other parts of the sentences (which don't make proper sense) were fixed.

"would" is not needed in (B) if you simply mean "There were very few people ....". "would" requires extra context to justify or explain its use. (E) also needs further context to explain or justify the use of "would". If you simply mean that "people didn't go to school" then just say that.

Tenjing · Answer

Thanks a lot, Califjim.
In my sentences B,C,D,and E, I tried to talk about the things that were always true not about characteristic behaviour and habit. I am going to write down the exact sentences that are in my grammar book. It says, we can use 'would' for the past to talk about things that were always true. For examples,
A. During the war, people would eat all kind of things that we don't eat now.
B. Early passenger planes wouldn't hold more than thirty passengers.
These sentences don't show characteristic behavior or habit right??

Tenjing · Answer

Califjim, you said the sentences B,C,D,and E should have been with 'would've', if so, are they a third conditional sentences. If you way those are third conditional sentences then, could you show me what 'if clause' could be??

CalifJim · Answer

tenjingshould have been with 'would've', if so, are they a third conditional sentences.

No. They are not third conditional sentences. You need an if-clause to have a conditional sentence.

Use the search box above to find posts on this forum, and use a search engine like Google and you will find hundreds of websites that teach you all about conditional sentences.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

tenjingA. During the war, people would eat all kind of things that we don't eat now.

This talks about characteristic eating behavior in the past.

tenjingB. Early passenger planes wouldn't hold more than thirty passengers.

This isn't the most typical sentence of its kind. Planes can't have behaviors or habits. Nevertheless, you sometimes see this construction even when the subject is inanimate, so you see, it's not completely impossible. Here the word "early" alerts us to the idea that is characteristic of the past. (I would have said, "couldn't hold", by the way.)

CJ

confusion about would.

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