hii,
I am learning English for around 5 years and I still can’t comprehend the meaning of “would” and “count” in some context. are they just past form of “will” and “can”?
“would you like coffee” means a person is asking if you liked coffee in past? “I would do it” means I did it in past?
I really don’t understand since my language doesn’t have anything like those words.
Edit: Thank you for answering my naive question :)
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If you won’t, then you can’t because mental barrier, but if you can’t maybe you would if you could.
I see the difference as Would is indicative of intent. E.g. would you drink coffee Could us indicative of ability. E.g. could you drink coffee
And this we get the best ending lyric from Alice in Chains…“if I would, could you ?”
“Would” is a very confusing word in English. It can mean opposite things, but native English speakers don’t usually notice how confusing it is.
“Would you?” can be a polite way of asking asking a question. “Would you like some coffee?” is basically the same as “Do you want some coffee?” but a little gentler. It implies more permission to say no.
You say yes to a “would you” question by saying “I would,” or, “yes, I would.”
EXCEPT
“I would” can also be a polite way of saying no. It means that the answer would be yes under some different circumstance. Someone might say “I would have some coffee, but I’m avoiding caffeine.” This is like saying, “Under a different circumstance I’d gladly accept your offer.”
So if I ask “would you like some coffee?” and you say “I would.” That means yes. If you say “I would, but I just had some.” That means no.
Many English learners find this extremely confusing, for good reason.
You’re not helping to describe the use of “would” by adding extra words to negate the intent. “I would, but I won’t” is two statements. You’ve instead described the use of the word “but”.
Let’s see if I can give at least something understandable. To start with, definitely not past tence.
If you ask “would you like coffee?” you’re asking in the present if coffee is something the person wants to drink now. If you ask “would you go to the store?” you are asking if the person doesn’t mind going to the store.
Could is similar but is slightly different, is to ask if the person can do something.
Could you take out the trash ? - are you able to take out the trash?
Would you take out the trash? - do you mind taking out the trash?
Not sure this helps, but in project management there’s this think called the MoSCoW scale to define how important a requirement is, it looks like:
Must (you have to do it)
Should (very important but not as important)
Could (not important but if you can you should do it)
Would (would like to have, this is definitely not important but if you have enough time it’d be great)
Oh interesting, I’ve always taken the W in MoSCoW as “Won’t”
Did you try to search for “would dictionary”? Also you could search for “would your_language”.
Would is a hypothetical will. “Would you dance” is a general query, but “will you dance” is a call to action. A lot of the time, would is followed by if, as in, “would you dance if I asked you to?”
“Would you like coffee” is a round-about way to ask if you want coffee. Full form would be “if I brought you coffee, would you like it?”
Past tense is “would have”, such as “would you have liked coffee?” This is generally a missed opportinuty where you didn’t do something, and you’re asking so you can know more for the future. Saying “I would have” generally means “I didn’t.”
Your post is mostly excellent but I’m afraid your last sentence might cause confusion because you don’t specify what they didn’t. “I didn’t” what?
I disagree. I clearly equated both phrases, and both phrases can either exist in a longer sentence to establish the subject or as a complete phrase with the subject established in a previous sentence.
Examples: “I would have danced” is functionally the same as “I didn’t dance.” If someone asks you if you danced, you could answer “I would have” or “I didn’t” and the same information is brought across.
If someone asks you if you danced, you could answer “I would have” or “I didn’t” and the same information is brought across
Hard disagree there. “I would have” implies that dancing was something you desired, but circonstances didn’t allow for whatever reason. There’s an unsaid “but” in there, whereas “I didn’t” simply means you were not involved in the dancing.
“I would have” carries a lot more meaning than a simple “I did not”.
Ok, now I understand what you meant, but I also disagree, like your other replier. “I would have” contains intent, whereas “I didn’t” does not.
Imagine if your roommate asks “did you steal my laptop?” Answering “I didn’t” answers the question succinctly, and there is no discussion of intent. Answering “I would have” suggests that there is (or was) some intent to steal.
As a native English speaker, these questions make me wish we all spoke Latin 😂
Then, instead of two problems, we have seven more specific problems.
Do you ever get that thing where the more you look at a word the more it looks wrong? I’m getting that with “would” and “could” after reading this thread.
Would is more definitive than could in most cases.
“That sounds like something Jim would do.”
“I don’t think Kevin would ever do that.”
But when phrased as a question, “Would you like coffee?” it’s asking your preference, again, a definitive yes/no.
Could is less about definitive fact, and more about possibilities.
“Yes, I could see Jim doing that.”
Did he do it? Did he not do it? Unknown, but the possibility is there.
“No, I don’t think Kevin could do that.”
Is it POSSIBLE Kevin did something? It’s possible, but the speaker finds it unlikely.
You’re probably gonna get a better technical answer in [email protected] on language questions.
It’s not dealing with the past, but with things that don’t happen or might not happen.
Does this answer your question? It’s probably better than an ad-hoc explanation.
https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/How-to-Use-Could-Would-and-Should
Could is maybe-can: I bet I could jump over that car [if I wanted to].
As opposed to I bet I can jump over that car [and I’m going to try].
Would is maybe-will: If you saw an alligator, would you run away?
Would is also ‘did’, for habitual actions. When I was young, I would wait by the window for my father to come home.
Great answer, straight to the point, easy to understand for non-native English speaker
… and you also add this last part that I didn’t know.
They don’t have their own meaning. They modify the tense and mood of the sentence. In many languages, this is built into the verb but English doesn’t have that power. As a result, you have to use external modifiers.
I’m not an English teacher but here’s a way of trying to understand these.
would can have various forms, but as used here “would you like coffee?” is not asking if you liked in the past, it’s rather if you want now (or in the future) in a slightly more polite form. Would is a conditional. “would you take the blue or the red pill?” It’s giving you a choice.
Can/could ask more about intent and whether you’re able to do something. “Can you do X?” (Or could you do X? Is the same but a bit more formal). Is asking if the person is capable and wants to do something. “Would you do something?” Gives the person the conditional of either doing something else or just not doing it. It’s a question with an “or else …”.
Could is also the past form of Can. “I could have done it (in the past) but I did not do it” vs. I can do it (now or in the future).
Hope it gives you a starting point!
To give you a final example using various forms:
“You could have Googled this, but you wouldn’t want to waste time scrolling to the useless AI results, which I perfectly understand; we can’t spend all day reading AI generated text.”
I’m not a linguist, but here’s how I understand it:
This is why would is so fucked: it’s used both in the conditional, and the subjunctive mood. However, nothing I see in the online resources really talks about would being used in the subjunctive.
When someone uses the phrase “would you like a coffee?” I’m nearly certain that it’s the subjunctive, polite way of saying “do you want coffee.” It’s very similar to the Spanish quieres/quisieras pair. In Spanish you get an irregular conjugation, but in English, the whole verb changes from to be to will.
As a non-linguist, native speaker, these mood changes come naturally to me. I never had to study them. As a second language learner, this is always one of the most brain-melting facets of a new language.
Lol you’re right about this giving native English speakers a headache. I’m not sure the subjunctive is the correct explanation here, though.
The subjunctive mood in English primarily uses the past tense form of verbs (“were,” “were to,” etc.) to convey wishes or counterfactuality. E.g. ‘I wish you wouldn’t drink so much coffee’, or 'If I were you, I wouldn’t…"
However, ‘would you like a coffee?’ is a direct question of preference, which means it technically is using the indicative mood rather than the subjunctive. Here, ‘would’ functions as a model verb to soften the request and make it more polite.
Would: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/would
• a simple past tense and past participle of will
• used to express an intention or inclination
• used to express an uncertainty
• used in conditional sentences to express choice or possibilityCould: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/could
• a simple past tense of can
• used to express possibility
• used to express conditional possibility or ability
• used in asking for permissionWould / will is used when something is possible but you’re not sure.
Could / can is used when you’re not sure if something is possible. –This is the right answer
