Hypothetical would

Question

A: I don’t know if he will come to the party tomorrow. If he came, that would be great.
B: He would help you but he is busy.
C: The congress has introduced a bill regarding semiconductor chips. It would allow semiconductor companies to have billions of dollars in subsidies.

D: It would be better to go there tomorrow, in my opinion.
E: If you asked him, he would help you. (Meaning he wouldn’t help you if you didn’t ask him)

F: Some beers would be fantastic. (There are no beers at dinner)

G: The credit card data would suggest the US consumers are struggling. (The credit card data came out this morning)

Are these sentences correct and are the woulds used in the sentences above hypothetical(conditional)? Please let me know which would is conditional(hypothetical) and which would is would of probability/guess/assumption etc.? I would really appreciate your help.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

EverestCTSA: I don’t know if he will come to the party tomorrow. If he came, that would be great.

would used to express an opinion about an imagined situation.

Without would: It's great that he came to the party. Here the situation is not imagined.

is becomes would be and that becomes if in the imagined version:
It would be great if he came to the party.

Here the subordinate clauses are shifted from the beginning of the sentence to the end and a "dummy it" replaces the clause.

That he came to the party is great > It is great that he came to the party.
*If he came to the party would be great > It would be great if he came to the party.

Alternate form in the second case:
If he came to the party, it/that would be great.

(Initial * means "ungrammatical", so the movement of the subordinate clause to the end — or the alternate form — is required in the second case.)

D and F also belong to this category.

It would be better to go there tomorrow, in my opinion is equivalent to It would be better if we went there tomorrow.

Some beers would be fantastic. (There are no beers at dinner.) is equivalent to It would be fantastic if we had some beers at dinner.

The explanation for these is the same as the explanation shown above for sentence A.

You can invent these by the thousands.

It's sad that Susan's mother died.
It would be sad if Susan's mother died.

It's amazing that we won the lottery.
It would be amazing if we won the lottery.

It's unusual that Mr Foulard wasn't wearing a scarf.
It would be unusual if Mr Foulard wasn't/weren't wearing a scarf.

There are variants, of course, and you can get creative with that. You don't even need an if-clause to show an opinion about an imagined situation:

It would be unusual to see Mr Foulard without a scarf.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

EverestCTSB: He would help you, but he is busy.

would to show willingness.

He is willing to help you, but he is busy.

Also, implied second conditional.

He would help you if he weren't busy.

Both together:

He would be willing to help you if he weren't busy.

E is basically the same except the conditional is not implied. It's explicitly shown as "if". The aspect of willingness is weaker here.

If you asked him, he would help you.

(Your remark Meaning he wouldn’t help you if you didn’t ask him is mystifying because it doesn't mean that. Not exactly, anyway, because he might see that you're having trouble doing something and offer to help even if you didn't ask for help.)

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

EverestCTSC: The congress has introduced a bill regarding semiconductor chips. It would allow semiconductor companies to have billions of dollars in subsidies.

The implicit condition is "If the bill were enacted". (In case you didn't know, to enact a bill is to make it a law.)

So this is a second conditional with an implicit condition.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

EverestCTSG: The credit card data would suggest the US consumers are struggling. (The credit card data came out this morning.)

would suggest ~ seems to suggest

If you want to make up a new term for your list of woulds, you can say it's "the would of appearances". This can be a subcategory under the would of uncertainty because 'seems' is more uncertain than 'is'. For emphasis you can even have would seem ~ would seem to seem. But in my opinion, that's overdoing it.

CJ

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