'Would' in this sentence

Question

Hello,I found this phrase online:"Though they tried a couple of poses, the one that would eventually win as the official vacation photo depicts the five teens, three of them shirtless, with shaggy hair typical of the time."What's the role of 'would' in the above phrase? Wouldn't it be more correct to say it as:"Though they tried a couple of poses, the one that eventually won as the official vacation photo depicts the five teens, three of them shirtless, with shaggy hair typical of the time."Thanks.

Cool Breeze · Accepted Answer

Both the original sentence and yours are fine. Would is in keeping with the laws of the sequence of tenses as tried is a past tense form.

can - could
will - would
shall - should
may - might
must - must

Use the second form of the auxilary with past tense verbs:

I knew he could do it if he tried.
I learnt early in life that sworking hard would help me succeed.
He told me that I should not do such things.
I realised that it might be easier to try another approach.
They understood that something must be wrong.

In many other languages, a past tense is used for "must" in the last sentence and therefore translating it with a past tense form may sound more natural in your native language than the present tense.

CB

Pooyan · Answer

Thanks for your detailed response.

but in the first sentence, it is not that the original phrase was: "the one that will eventually win as the official vacation photo depicts ..." and now in order to follow the rule of the sequence of tenses , we have changed it to "the one that would eventually win as the official vacation photo depicts ..."

Based on the context, the phrase doesn't have a meaning in future,it's in the past and "eventually won" in the second sentence still conforms with the rule mentioned above.

'Would' in this sentence

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions