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PASTEL Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Would you call it opinion "would"

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00Hugh Pennington, president of the UK's Society for General Microbiology, says: "If we can get rid of needles, that 11b10would12b10 be a good thing. They can be very painful, especially for kids." 12blockquote
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00The modal "will" could fit in the context as well but it would sound a bit too conceited and arrogant. It would sound just fine too. But IMHO, would is a better choice and I call it "opinion would", less-direct tone. What do you think? 02br
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00Thanks, 02br
00Pastel 0230hrefhttp://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2005/05/01/2003252716
  

Top answer

0 I agree 'will' also could fit here. I think the author chose 'would' because he deemed it better fit than 'will' to express his prediction about the likelihood of 'being good'. It would be nonsense to quantify the likelihoods.

— Paco2004

  • 0 I agree 'will' also could fit here.
  • I think the author chose 'would' because he deemed it better fit than 'will' to express his prediction about the likelihood of 'being good'.
  • It would be nonsense to quantify the likelihoods.
  • But, if I was forced to do so, I would say 'would' for a likelihood around 80% and 'will' for a likelihood over 90 %.
  • 02br 02br 00paco 0-
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26 Answers
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0 I agree 'will' also could fit here. I think the author chose 'would' because he deemed it better fit than 'will' to express his prediction about the likelihood of 'being good'. It would be nonsense to quantify the likelihoods. But, if I was forced to do so, I would say 'would' for a likelihood around 80% and 'will' for a likelihood over 90 %. 02br
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00paco 0-
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0I don't think it would be wise to call it "opinion 'would'", Pastel. As you can surmise from Paco's comment and your own intuition, both 'will' and 'would' express opinions (with a little help from the 'if')--as do other modals, and I think you are just muddying the waters of hypothetical expression if you try to use such a term for only one of its manifestations. 0-
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0 Hi! Paco, 02br
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00How are you doing? It's been a long time. I was back last night and I had GREAT fun in your country. Japan is a lovely place and its people are just polite and nice. One of my friends said to me that it takes you forever to understand Japanese. I've been to ??, ??, ??, ??, ??, ?? and ??. People in there speak little English and I speak three phrases of
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0 Hi, MM, 02br
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00Thanks for the reply. I wouldn't think I am muddying the waters of hypothetical expression. There might be this nuance that differs its sense. Modals are intricated as well as interesting. Most of the time, I have to smile at it and let it just pass my brain. If I never asked, how would I know I am muddying the waters? 02br
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0 Hello Pastel 02br
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00Likely you enjoyed Tohoku a lot. Talking a bit of my knowledge about that area, Tohoku was the homeland of Ainu people about a millenium ago. Although the people were assimilated into Japanese afterward, the samurais in that area were faithful to Tokugawa Shogunate and fought for them against the army of the new government at the time of Meiji Revol
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0 Speaking of muddying the waters, I would call it "slip-of-the-tongue 'can'" ("absent-minded 'can'"?) rather than "opinion 'would'". 02br
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00If the speaker had known he was going to use "would" later in the sentence, (and I think he didn't, he was just blathering) -- before he opened his big mouth and said "can", that is 05000 -- then he would have chosen "could"
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0 Hello CJ 02br
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00Thank you for the insightful opinion. Modals are real problems for me in learning English. To me, usage of modals appears to belong rather to 'personal grammars', though I believe there must be some constraints on the usage. Because the variance in the usage among speakers is so large, it is very hard to get how to use them myself. 02br
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001- I don't think it would be wise to call it "opinion 'would'. 12br
102- I wouldn't think it is wise to call it "opinion 'would'. 12br
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10I think example one and two are nearly the same too. But still, I'd like to say number 1 is somewhat less humble than 2 to my ear. I could be wrong and I look forward to your further comment.12
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0 I think that the original post is one situation in which the "rules" concerning conditionals would most likely be ignored. 02br
00As has been said, the use of would softens the tone. The man is perhaps making a real effort to achieve his task, but there is, in reality, only a small chance of success. Therefore he kicks off in the 1st conditional, and trails into the 2nd. 02br
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0 01blockquote
00If the speaker had known he was going to use "would" later in the sentence, (and I think he didn't, he was just blathering) -- before he opened his big mouth and said "can", that is -- then he would have chosen "could" instead. But you can't unspeak a word, so he went ahead and finished the sentence that was in his mind anyway. 12blockquote
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