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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

should/would do vs. should/would be doing

Hi,

I don't know the differene between the following structures:

(I should do) vs. (I should be doing)
(I would do) vs. (I would be doing)

I would be grateful if you could explain the difference to me.

Thanks
  

Top answer

In the sort of situation I imagine you are thinking of, the progressive forms indicate an increased concern or involvement in the topic by the speaker; the progressive makes the action more immediate to perception.

  • In the sort of situation I imagine you are thinking of, the progressive forms indicate an increased concern or involvement in the topic by the speaker; the progressive makes the action more immediate to perception.
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4 Answers
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In the sort of situation I imagine you are thinking of, the progressive forms indicate an increased concern or involvement in the topic by the speaker; the progressive makes the action more immediate to perception.
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Thanks for your response. So, when for instance a professor giving a lecture says:
I told you we would be talking about topic A
Does the professor mean that he/she is going to talk about topic A now? In other words, my question is the difference between the sentence above and a sentence like
I told you we would talk about topic A

Regards
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I told you we would be talking about topic A
I told you we would talk about topic A

In both cases, the lecture could be held yesterday, right now, or tomorrow. The difference is as I stated earlier.
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could u tell me where we do use would be ...

Thanx

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