I would open presents in the morning

Question

Dear all,Please see the following sentences. They are taken from the Facebook post of a native English teacher. Here please tell me why he used the word "would". As per my understanding "Usually I open presents in the morning is OK". Secondly, I'd like to know whether the usage "I was up really late last night" is natural. As a non-native speaker, I tend to say "I stayed up really late last night". Lastly, can we say "so I got up late this morning" instead of "so I slept late this morning"? I'd like to get your opinion on this."It's time to open/unwrap presents and find out what Santa brought me for Christmas. Usually I 'would' open presents in the morning, but 'I was up' really late last night, so I slept late this morning."

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

It's time to open/unwrap presents and find out what Santa brought me for Christmas. Usually I 'would' open presents in the morning, but 'I was up' really late last night, so I slept late this morning.

'would' has a hybrid function here. Both of the uses of 'would' come into play here.

1) 'would' shows habitual action in the past. "usually" says this is a usual action. We only know what is usual if we have observed what has happened in the past.

2) 'would' shows conditionality. The implicit "if" is found again in the word "usually". If this were a usual case, I would open presents in the morning. The rest of the sentence says why it is not a usual case. "I was up late". So that, too, shows conditionality. If had not been up late last night, I would have opened presents in the morning.

cat navy 425As per my understanding "Usually I open presents in the morning" is OK.

Yes, that's also OK.

cat navy 425Secondly, I'd like to know whether the usage "I was up really late last night" is natural. As a non-native speaker, I tend to say "I stayed up really late last night".

Yes. It's quite natural. Just less formal. That makes "would", and my lengthy analysis of it, unnecessary of course.

cat navy 425Lastly, can we say "so I got up late this morning" instead of "so I slept late this morning"?

Yes, you can. That's a very natural way of saying it. Personally, I don't use the expression "slept late" myself, but a lot of people do. I would say it as you have suggested.

CJ

GPY · Answer

cat navy 425Here please tell me why he used the word "would".

You can think of it as like a conditional: "Usually I would ..." = "If it was a usual situation, I would ...".

cat navy 425As per my understanding "Usually I open presents in the morning is OK".

Yes, that's OK too.

cat navy 425Secondly, I'd like to know whether the usage "I was up really late last night" is natural.

Yes.

cat navy 425 As a non-native speaker, I tend to say "I stayed up really late last night".

That's fine too.

cat navy 425Lastly, can we say "so I got up late this morning" instead of "so I slept late this morning"?

Yes.

(Cross-posted.)

I would open presents in the morning

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