would and Future

Question

Can I say: "I would hope to do that and I will start my business"?"Would" is implied as modal verb. Could you show more examples? Is there nothing strange to use would with will?Thank you.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

This sentence doesn't sound very natural. "I would hope to do that" is OK; it's just a more tentative version of "I hope to do that". "I will start my business" is also fine. But this combination of "would" and "will" doesn't really work for me.

"I would hope to do that and then start my business" is better.

Fandorin · Answer

Yes, thank you. So do you think it's not natural to use would togethr with will?  Is it incorrect gramatically or simply grate on the ears?

Mr Wordy · Answer

Your original sentence is not, strictly speaking, ungrammatical. It just seems awkward.

However, thinking about it some more, I'm not so sure that the unnaturalness is purely down to the would/will combination. For example, "I would hope to do that and then I will start my business" sounds quite a lot better to me because "then" adds more "distance".

Furthermore, "I hope to do that and I will start my business" also sounds awkward to me, even though there is no "would".

I think that when you "change direction" like this in the middle of a sentence, you probably need something a little more than a flimsy "and" to connect the two parts.

Fandorin · Answer

Thank you so much. Could you give me a short example? Is it possible to say so: "I hope to do that and then start my business" ?
How use tentative accent in the first part and then connect it with a Future?

Mr Wordy · Answer

Fandorin Is it possible to say so: "I hope to do that and then start my business" ?

This is fine.

FandorinHow use tentative accent in the first part and then connect it with a Future?

I think you need to choose a form of words that makes it clear that the ~~"definite"~~ future action is only definite if the tentative actually happens. The word "then" seems to go some way towards fulfilling this role, and, as I mentioned, I think the following is not too bad:

I would hope to do that, and then I will start my business.

(here I also added a comma, which further helps to divide the two parts).

To make this contingent relationship more explicit, you could say:

I would hope to do that. If I succeed then I will start my business.

Bear in mind, also, that "hope" is already tentative. "would hope" is more tentative, but, depending on exactly how tentative you want to be, "hope" might well be sufficient by itself.

Fandorin · Answer

Thank you so much.

would and Future

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