Would like to / Should like to

Hello Guest

OED says the way as below, though I myself feel it is only valid to BrE.

[Should]
With verbs of liking, preference, etc., should in the first person (and interrogatively in the second) is regarded as more correct than would, though this is often used.

1779 Boswell Johnson (1904) II. 308 Should you not like to see Dublin, Sir? 1785 J. Trusler

Yes, it is true that "I would like" is more and more frequent...

It sounds more natural, I'd suggest, because we tend to speak of our desires/wants in more decided tones. "I would like to" equals "I want to" but it is more deferential, more polite, less demanding.

Just as "want to" says high certainty, so does "I would like to". "should" and "probably" weaken the main epistemic meaning of 'would' and as you can see, neither approaches the much more

I notice that 33% of webwide hits for "I should like to" are UK-only, against a mere 7.4% of webwide hits for "I would like to".

On the strength of my own exposure to spoken BrE, I would say that 'I should like...' suggests the following situations: addresses by CEOs, chairmen, directors; parliamentary debates; speeches by public figures (at the non-celebrity end of the 'public figure'

(Untested hypothesis: if an evidently low-status BrE says 'I should like...', it may be taken by other BrEs as a case of 'putting on airs'; or parody.)

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Those low status BrEs actually start with the British PM, Mr Blair and the lawmakers who failed in their jobs. There is nothing or no one so low in status as those who would kill innocents based on lies.

Hmm. I think my comments may have been misinterpreted. Perhaps:

(Untested hypothesis: if a BrE microserf says 'I should like...', it may be taken by other BrE microserfs as a grave case of 'putting on airs'; or parody.)

MrP

As an airy Br. Eng. microserf, I should like to say that I seem to be amongst the few who continue to prefer "I/we should", though I admit to using "would"

What is a "microserf"?

It's a joke, Hela. A serf was a peasant in the middle ages, and combining this with 'micro' indicates a person of absolutely no significance whatsoever. I think Mr. P may have made it up.

Thanks abbie, I just love the way MrP & JTT keep teasing one another. It always makes me laugh but at the same time I think it helps me understand that nothing is 100 percent right or wrong in a language. And their arguments or "disputes" help me make up my mind about a point of grammar.

Thank you all very much!
Hela