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Jooney Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Would
Hi,
Wall Street, of course, has always sought profits — but if greed were to be countenanced, it should be long-term greed, not short-term greed, in the words of Gus Levy, who led Goldman Sachs in the 1960s and ’70s. With long-term greed, money was made with clients, not from them.
Nostalgic as it might seem, seasoned players at Goldman and other top-tier firms insist there was a time when long-term greed was the order of the day, at least publicly and often privately, too. But over the last 25 years, as the incentive structure metamorphosed, longtime bankers and scholars say, Wall Street has been remade in ways that Mr. Levy would hardly recognize.
Is this an example of the tentative use of would?
I'd appreciate your help.
Wall Street, of course, has always sought profits — but if greed were to be countenanced, it should be long-term greed, not short-term greed, in the words of Gus Levy, who led Goldman Sachs in the 1960s and ’70s. With long-term greed, money was made with clients, not from them.
Nostalgic as it might seem, seasoned players at Goldman and other top-tier firms insist there was a time when long-term greed was the order of the day, at least publicly and often privately, too. But over the last 25 years, as the incentive structure metamorphosed, longtime bankers and scholars say, Wall Street has been remade in ways that Mr. Levy would hardly recognize.
Is this an example of the tentative use of would?
I'd appreciate your help.
Top answer
jooney Is this an example of the tentative use of would? No. Not to my ear.
- jooney Is this an example of the tentative use of would?
- No.
- Not to my ear.
- It's the conditional use with an implicit condition: if he were to see it now .
- CJ
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4 Answers
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jooneyIs this an example of the tentative use of would?No. Not to my ear. It's the conditional use with an implicit condition: if he were to see it now.
CJ
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I keep forgeting there is always a possibility of an implicit conditional. Thank you very much, CJ.
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jooneya possibility of an implicit conditionalRight. In this case I suppose you were thinking that "will recognize" was the non-tentative form and "would recognize" was the tentative form. The version with "will recognize" would not occur to the usual readers of this kind of article - readers who know the subject well. The reason is that they would already
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