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English 1b3 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Two uses of the modal 'would'

I'm struggling to differentiate between these two uses of 'would' that I got from a website:

would: Talking about the past

We often use would as a kind of past tense of will or going to:

  • Even as a boy, he knew that he would succeed in life.

  • I thought it would rain so I brought my umbrella.

would: Future in past

When talking about the past we can use would to express something that has not happened at the time we are talking about:

  • In London she met the man that she would one day marry.

  • He left 5 minutes late, unaware that the delay would save his life.
In the first set of examples, the verbs in the main clause 'knew' and 'thought' are past simple. 'would succeed' and 'would rain' are obviously past simple but follow on from the verbs thought and knew. I see no difference for the following two examples... Can you please explain?

Thanks.
  

Top answer

In the first case, the idiomatic use of 'would' is for past habit. It is a formal and somewhat dated form of 'used to'.

— Mister Micawber

  • In the first case, the idiomatic use of 'would' is for past habit.
  • It is a formal and somewhat dated form of 'used to'.
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10 Answers
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In the first case, the idiomatic use of 'would' is for past habit. It is a formal and somewhat dated form of 'used to'.
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Mister Micawber
In the first case, the idiomatic use of 'would' is for past habit. It is a formal and somewhat dated form of 'used to'.


I don't see that. The only difference I see is that in the first pair the future event was known or predicted at the time, whereas in the second it's known only with hindsight. However, the function of "wo
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I agree completely with Mr Wordy. I must have been reading another page somewhere. Please ignore my post.
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Mr Wordy
Mister Micawber
In the first case, the idiomatic use of 'would' is for past habit. It is a formal and somewhat dated form of 'used to'.


I don't see that. The only difference I see is that in the first pair the future event was known or predicted at the time, whereas in the second it's known only with hindsi
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English 1b3What is the tense of would + infinitive? Is it taken from the surrounding verbs?

In the future-in-the-past sense, "would" is identifiably the past tense of "will": "I know I will be successful" -> "I knew I would be successful".

In other cases, such as in conditional sentences, it's not terribly obvious to me that "would" has any in
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English 1b3 I see no difference
I don't either, except as noted by Mr Wordy. I don't think the headings are very informative. As far as I can see, both categories are about the future of the past.

In the first case, the speaker places himself in the past, so the future of the past is presented as unknown; in the second case, the speaker places him
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CalifJimin the second case, the speaker places himself in the present, so the future of that past is already known.

Are you talking about the third sentence of mine; that is, do you mean 'herself'?

And how has the speaker placed himself in the present?
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English 1b3Are you talking about the third sentence of mine; that is, do you mean 'herself'?
No. I'm talking about the speaker of any such sentence.
English 1b3And how has the speaker placed himself in the present?
The speaker already knows the outcome of the past situation. It's a sort of omniscient present
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CalifJimThe speaker already knows the outcome of the past situation. It's a sort of omniscient present point of view. If I already know the whole story and what eventually happened, I can "place myself in the present" when I talk about something in the story.
Ah, k, so there is no difference in structure or tense to convey what you're talking about; The diff
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English 1b3so there is no difference in structure or tense to convey what you're talking about; The difference is only that the speaker knows what happens (even though the tense of the sentence is past tense)
Right.

CJ
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