Would

Question

Scene 1Katniss Everdeen: President Snow. What an honor.President Snow: My dear, I think we can make this so much simpler. If we agree not to lie to each other, what do you think?Katniss Everdeen: Yes, I think that would save time.President Snow: Sit down, please.Scene 2Johanna Mason: How do we know the wire's not gonna burn up?Beetee: Because I invented it. I assure you, it won't burn up. [they all look at each other for a moment]Johanna Mason: Well, it's better than hunting them down.Katniss Everdeen: Yeah, why not? If it fails, no harm done anyway, right?Peeta Mellark: Alright, I say we try it.Finnick Odair: So what can we do to help?Beetee: Keep me alive for the next six hours. That would be extremely helpful.Are these would hypothetical? Doesn’t “would” in scene 1 have an implied condition of “if we didn’t like to each other, that would save time”?Doesn’t “would” in scene 2 have an implied condition of “that would be extremely helpful if you kept me alive for the next six hours.”?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

EverestCTSPresident Snow: My dear, I think we can make this so much simpler. If we agree not to lie to each other, what do you think?

Before we get started, I have to say that this is not punctuated correctly. It should be as follows.

My dear, I think we can make this so much simpler if we agree not to lie to each other.
What do you think?

EverestCTSAre these woulds hypothetical?

You already know my opinion on this. No clauses with would are hypothetical — except insofar as they are show the result of a hypothesis expressed in a different clause (or perhaps implicitly from the context). Nevertheless, I don't think we should use the term "hypothetical would".

EverestCTSDoesn’t “would” in scene 1 have an implied condition of “if we didn’t ~~like~~ lie to each other, that would save time”?

No, because it is not implied. It is stated quite clearly. It is explicit, not implicit. Strictly speaking, the condition (i.e., the hypothesis) is

we agree not to lie to each other

Ms Everdeen refers to this condition as simply "that". So she's saying

"Our agreement not to lie to each other would save time".

[I am ignoring the conditional statement

We can make this so much simpler if we agree not to lie to each other.

That's because you haven't asked about it and because the same principles apply here as to the conditional statement you did ask about.]

There are two ways to look at this.

1) It is simply a conditional statement:
If we agree not to lie to each other, it/that would save time.

2) It is an opinion about an imagined situation:
Imagined situation: We agree not to lie to each other. / We don't lie to each other.
Opinion: That saves time. / Doing that saves time.

EverestCTSDoesn’t “would” in scene 2 have an implied condition of “that would be extremely helpful if you kept me alive for the next six hours.”?

Again, the whole sentence cannot be the condition. The whole sentence is called the conditional statement. Here's the (implied) condition:

you keep me alive for the next six hours

There was no "if" in the original words, so in this case the condition is implied in the conditional statement as follows:

If you keep me alive for the next six hours, it/that would be extremely helpful.

Beetee refers to the condition as "that". Beetee is saying

Your keeping me alive for the next six hours would be extremely helpful.

There are two ways to look at this.

1) It is simply a conditional statement (with an implied condition):
If you keep me alive for the next six hours, it/that would be extremely helpful.

2) It is an opinion about an imagined situation:
Imagined situation: You keep me alive for the next six hours.
Opinion: That is extremely helpful. / Doing that is extremely helpful.

Note that neither situation is strictly causative. For this reason the idea that these are opinions is a bit stronger than the idea that these are of the form

If this happens, then that will happen as a result.

Though the same principle works for both of your examples, it is even more obvious in the second case: It's not that they keep Beetee alive for six hours, and then, as a result, it's extremely helpful. The opinion about keeping Beetee alive was that it would be extremely helpful right from the beginning, before they even started to keep Beetee alive.

But in any case, you should interpret these sentences in whatever way makes most sense to you.

CJ

Would

Scene 1

Scene 2

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