Using would

Question

HelloI have been reading an article and have noticed many sentences about using would : 1- desalinization which would remove salt from sea water2- according to estimates. it would cost between 50 and 100 ...and many sentences include (would) so , why here we use would , and is it instead of present simple or what and can we use present simple here or what . thank you

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

In the future be sure to include the entire sentence in which you find these uses of 'would'. Without at least one full sentence there is not enough context to give you a good answer.

It seems to me, judging by what little you have presented, that these are fairly typical uses of 'would', where a situation is not known to exist in reality but is instead envisioned or imagined as a possibility.

1) desalinization which removes salt from sea water
2) desalinization which would remove salt from sea water

1) sounds like a known method of desalination.
2) sounds like perhaps a newly proposed method of desalination.

1) according to estimates. it costs between 50 and 100 ...
2) according to estimates. it would cost between 50 and 100 ...

Here the punctuation is wrong, so it's hard to interpret what you have here.

1) doesn't seem right in terms of meaning. If they are estimates, they are not known to be precisely correct amounts, so we are not likely to say so directly with the present tense.
2) makes more sense because we are envisioning (imagining, guessing) the cost.

CJ

Please do not double post. Allow time for your original post to be read and approved by a moderator before posting a second time. Your duplicate post has been deleted.

Anonymous · Answer

samersamer1974desalinization

This is odd because the word is generally desalination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination

Using would

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions