Would Vs Will

Question

Hi,I want to send a mail to my lead saying I have completed X task and will work on Y task.I want to work on Y task immediately after sending mail.Is WOULD/WILL appropriate here?I will work on Y task.ORI would work on Y task.Thanks,Ravi

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

will. It's the future of the present.
Not would. That's the future of the past.
Tomorrow, though, you can say:
Yesterday I sent an e-mail to my lead, saying that I would work on task Y.
CJ

Ravikumarkargam · Answer

Thank you.

Anonymous · Answer

Helped a lot, thanks!

Anonymous · Answer

Hi,

You wrote this in your response to the original query:

will. It's the future of the present.

Not would. That's the future of the past.

Tomorrow, though, you can say:

Yesterday I sent an e-mail to my lead, saying that I would work on task Y.

What do you mean by what you said, "Not would. That's the future of the past"?

Would you say that the 'would' here is the past of the word 'will'"? I also sense a conditional aspect to that. So, this 'would' takes on conditional as well as the function of the past of the 'will'. So, would you say a typical of use of modals like 'would' in a sentence likely to involve many functions of it at the same time and not just one function?

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousWhat do you mean by what you said, "Not would. That's the future of the past"?

I meant, "Do not use would in your sentence. Your sentence expresses the future (of the present). You are not reporting anything which was a future at that previous time. That is, you are not talking about anything that requires a future of the past. You are simply stating your intent to work on a task in the future, measured from the moment you utter the statement. This kind of present intention (commitment, promise, prediction) is expressed by will, not by would."
Now, as for your particular question, the word would has several uses, only one of which is the future of the past. As you correctly state, it is also used in the main clauses of certain conditional statements, and it has other uses as well. (I did not feel it was necessary to complicate my answer by discussing all the different uses.)

It is not at all unusual to find examples of would which exhibit aspects of several of the ways that would can be used. Not all occurrences of would that you may find in written or spoken English necessarily fall neatly into one of the typical categories.
The same is also true of many words and phrases in all languages, by the way.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Certainly correct.

zyice

Would Vs Will

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