Would or could ?
I wanted to ask when should I use "would" and "could" ?
I've found some definitions about these verbs like :
"could refers to some ability that someone had in the past."
"Would is the past tense of will, which denotes both ability and certainty."
For example if I say :
"I knew we could win this"
"I knew we would win this"
In the first sentence I'm expressing the ability that my team/group had the ability to win something ?
In the second sentence I'm showing certainty of the situation of winning something. Without "knew" it will say that we could / had a possibility of winning something ?
I don't understand that both of these definitions has the same usage of "ability" in the past.
Top answer
" These are not really definitions. They are just examples of some ways that 'could' and 'would' can be used. They may have been accompanied by sentences that illustrated 'could' and 'would' as they are used in those ways .
- " These are not really definitions.
- They are just examples of some ways that 'could' and 'would' can be used.
- They may have been accompanied by sentences that illustrated 'could' and 'would' as they are used in those ways .
- However, there are other ways of using those words.
- You cannot expect every occurrence of 'could' or 'would' to conform to those ways of using them.
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Xenon02 "could refers to some ability that someone had in the past."
"Would is the past tense of will, which denotes both ability and certainty."
These are not really definitions. They are just examples of some ways that 'could' and 'would' can be used. They may have been accompanied by sentences that illustrated 'could' and 'woul
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