Level: beginner
We use will:
- to express beliefs about the present or future
- to talk about what people want to do or are willing to do
- to make promises, offers and requests.
would is the past tense form of will. Because it is a past tense, it is used:
- to talk about the past
- to talk about hypotheses (when we imagine something)
- for politeness.
Beliefs
We use will to express beliefs about the present or future:
John will be in his office. (present)
We'll be late. (future)
We will have to take the train. (future)
We use would as the past of will, to describe past beliefs about the future:
I thought we would be late, so we would have to take the train.
Willingness
We use will:
- to talk about what people want to do or are willing to do:
We'll see you tomorrow.
Perhaps Dad will lend me the car.
- to talk about typical behaviour, things that we often do (because we are willing to do them):
We always spend our holidays at our favourite hotel at the seaside. We'll get up early every morning and have a quick breakfast then we'll go across the road to the beach.
We use would as the past tense of will:
- to talk about what people wanted to do or were willing to do in the past:
We had a terrible night. The baby wouldn't go to sleep.
Dad wouldn't lend me the car, so we had to take the train.
- to talk about typical behaviour, things that we often did (because we were willing to do them) in the past:
When they were children they used to spend their holidays at their grandmother's at the seaside. They'd get up early every morning and have a quick breakfast. Then they'd run across the road to the beach.
Promises, offers and requests
We use I will or We will to make promises and offers:
I'll give you a lift home after the party.
We'll come and see you next week.
We use Will you … ? or Would you … ? to make requests:
Will you carry this for me, please?
Would you please be quiet?
- will and would 1
- will and would 2
- will and would 3
Level: intermediate
Hypotheses and conditionals
We use will in conditionals to say what we think will happen in the present or future:
I'll give her a call if I can find her number.
You won't get in unless you have a ticket.
We use would to make hypotheses:
- when we imagine a situation:
It would be very expensive to stay in a hotel.
I would give you a lift, but my wife has the car today.
- in conditionals:
I would give her a call if I could find her number.
If I had the money, I'd buy a new car.
You would lose weight if you took more exercise.
If he got a new job, he would probably make more money.
What if he lost his job? What would happen then?
We also use conditionals to give advice :
Dan will help you if you ask him.
Past tenses are more polite:
Dan would help you if you asked him.
- will and would: hypotheses and conditionals
See also: Verbs in time clauses and conditionals
Level: beginner
Expressions with would
We use:
- would you…, would you mind (not) -ing for requests:
Would you carry this for me, please?
Would you mind carrying this?
Would you mind not telling him until tomorrow?
- would you like ..., would you like to ... for offers and invitations:
Would you like another drink?
Would you like to come round tomorrow?
- I would like …, I'd like … (you)(to) ... to say what we want or what we want to do:
I'd like that one, please.
I'd like to go home now.
- I'd rather… (= I would rather) to say what we prefer:
I'd rather have the new one, not the old one.
I don't want another drink. I'd rather go home.
- I would think, I would imagine, I'd guess to give an opinion when we are not sure or when we want to be polite:
It's very difficult, I would imagine.
I would think that's the right answer.
- Expressions with would 1
- Expressions with would 2
Hello team,
I am sorry for the long question above. Being quite new in this site, I did not know the proper things to do.
I have shortened my question to the below:
At 3 a.m, a couple are awakened by one of their neighbours
playing drums.
Wife: Someone is playing drums. It must be Henry.
Husband: No, it cannot be Henry;
(a) Henry WILL NOT play drums at 3 a.m
(b) Henry WOULD NOT play drums at 3 a.m
Are both (a) & (b) correct?
Thank you
Hello Yornis,
Since the husband is sure it is not Henry he should use a hypothetical form to be consistent. Therefore would not is the most likely form here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello teacher,
(1) I am sure it was a typo above; you meant to write "Since the HUSBAND is sure....", right?
(2) Regarding your answer, isn't being sure always associated with "will" as opposed to "would"? So, why is "WILL not" wrong above?
(3) And another question is: "consistent" with what?
Thank you
Hello again Yornis,
1) Yes, that's right. I've edited the comment to change 'wife' to 'husband'.
2) You can be sure that something is true or sure that something is not true. If the latter, then you treat the situation as hypothetical. For example, I am sure that the Earth is spherical and not flat. If it were flat, we would not see ships disappearing over the horizon.
3) The statements needs to be consistent internally and consistent with the husband's other statement(s).
I think we've given about as much explanation in this area as we can and we're now just repeating ourselves, so I think we'll consider this particular topic closed. I hope we've provided some clarification for you.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Yornis,
I'm afraid we can't answer this kind of long and intricate question. Please remember that we are a small team here offering a free service for many thousands of users. We try hard to provide as much help as we can but this kind of question, asking for explanations of multiple alternatives, is more than we can manage in the time we have available. Please try to keep questions short and concrete and we will try to help with our answers.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello team,
I would be grateful if your could help me with the below.
"Yesterday morning, the government announced their decision not to go ahead with the project. Your friend WOULD HAVE BEEN pleased."
What's the difference if the speaker had said:
Your friend WOULD BE pleased.
Thank you.
Hello Yornis,
...would have been... is speculation about the past: the speaker is talking about the friend's feelings at the time of the decision.
...would be... is speculation about the present: the speaker is talking about the friend's feelings now.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you
Hello team,
I would be grateful if you could help me with the below:
A teacher in an international school tells or reminds his class which consists of pupils of various races:
(1) Do not make statements that WILL hurt other races.
(2) Do not make statements that WOULD hurt other races.
Are both no.1 and no. 2 correct, or only one of those is correct?
Thank you.
Hello Yornis,
Both sentences are possible. The first sentence (with 'will') suggests that there is a realistic possibility of such a thing happening, so the teacher might use it if the situation has already occurred, for example. The second sentence (with 'would') suggests that the teacher is speaking in more hypothetical terms.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you
Hello teachers,
I hope it looks like I have posted it as a new topic this time.
I hope you can help me with the below. All the below three are from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
(1) stagger (3rd meaning):
To arrange for events that WOULD normally happen at the same time to start or happen at different times.
To some people, at first glance, the "would" above is a word used to refer to past events. But as someone who reads your website a lot, I know I cannot be so sure about it.
(2)matter-of-fact:
Without showing any emotion, especially in a situation in which you WOULD expect somebody to express their feelings.
(3) role-play:
A learning activity in which you behave in the way somebody else WOULD behave in a particular situation.
What are the functions of "would" in no. 1, 2, 3 above?
Thank you.
Hello Yornis,
Here 'would' is used to speak about hypothetical, imaginary situations. The dictionary definition asks you to imagine a possible (hypothetical) situation and calls on your knowledge and/or experience of similar situations to explain the meaning of the word.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello team,
Your answer above is for all three of my questions, right?
Thank you.
Hello Yornis,
Yes, it is. I'm sorry that wasn't clear.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello team,
Thank you for your answer. I would be grateful if you could help me with the below, which looks llike no. 2 above because of the fact it uses "you would expect", but I am sure the answer will be different this time.
(1) It is harder to find than you WOULD expect.
Certainly there is nothing hypothetical about this. What is the function of "would" here?
(2) If I use "WILL" instead:
It is harder to find than you WILL expect.
Can "will" here be used to refer to the present? ( As opposed to the future, which usually is the case for the word "will"). If it is referring to the present here, what is the function of "will" in this sentence?
Thank you.
Hello Yornis,
(2) If I use "WILL" instead:
You could consider these as unspoken/implied conditionals:
...than you would expect if you thought about it.
...than you will expect if you think about it.
However, languages do not always work in this way. Not all ways in which the language is used fit exact rules. Forms develop as a commonly understood means of expression tied into shared expectations and understanding, so a grammatical form such as would can express social conventions such as politeness rather than just fitting a grammatical rule. The expressions ...than you would and ...than you will here are used by the speaker to signal that the information is unexpected and probably surprising, with would being a little more tentative than will. I would not look for strict grammatical rules here but rather treat them as communicative expressions. I think this is why you have so many questions about would: you expect it to fit a logical grammatical rule each time whereas often it is part of a communicative meaning in social interaction.
The meaning of will is not tied to future time. It expresses a prediction or belief and it can quite easily be used with a present meaning: If I know her routine, right now she will be having a cup of coffee and reading a book.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you
Hello team
I would like to know the function of the modal verb 'would' in 'wh' questions (What would, Where would, Why would, How would, When would, Who would). What is the difference if 'would' is replaced by 'will' in these question sentences? Could you please explain in which situation we use would and will in 'wh' questions? Kindly clarify.
Hello mailofsus,
I'm afraid it would take quite a long time to answer this question, as both 'will' and 'would' have many different uses and what they mean also depends a lot on the context.
If you can ask a more specific question, we can try to help you.
I'd also suggest reading through the comments on this page. Several users have asked multiple questions about the difference between 'will' and 'would' and so there is quite a lot of information in their questions and our responses.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello Kirk
Thank you for the reply. Actually I am learning different functions and uses of the modal verb 'would'. Though I can understand most of its functions and differentiate them from will, I can't understand the difference it makes when we use it with WH questions. For example: How will you do this? vs How would you do this? Where will he go? vs Where would he go? Do these kind of 'wh + will/would' questions give the same meaning or different meaning and can be used for the same situations or different situations? I don't understand only this particular grammar function of 'would'. I hope I have stated my doubt clearly.
Hello mailofsus,
In general, 'will' shows that we conceive of the situation as more real or concrete and 'would' shows that we conceive of it as more imaginary.
For example, let's we are in a café in Bratislava speaking of living without electricity. If there is a planned electricity outage for this evening, then 'will' or 'are going to' are the best forms to use (not 'would') to speak about this future situation.
But if we speak about some imaginary or hypothetical situation -- for example, a trip to the deepest part of the Amazon -- then 'would' is more appropriate because it's a situation that we don't imagine as likely or existing in our near future.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello Krik,
Thanks for the reply.
So, Wh+will sentences are asked for a response based on a real plan in the future and
Wh+would sentences are asked for a response based on a unreal situation.
For example
How will we serve the guests if there is no electricity in the evening?
Where would we rest in the Amazon if it rains continuously?
Please let me know whether my understanding is right.
TIA
Hello mailofsus,
Yes, that is the idea -- good work.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello Yornis,
(a) is the most likely response as it describes typical behaviour.
(b) is possible but less common. We use will to describe typical behaviour when we find it a little irritating or excessive, and we usually stress will to give a sense of the person insisting on doing something.
(c) is not correct in this context as you are describing a present situation; would is used for past habitual actions which are no longer happening.
The answer is the same. Whether or not the habit is more or less frequent does not change the form we use.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thanks for replying.
Hello again Yornis,
As you say, answers (a) and (b) are fine here.
'Will' here is a form of prediction, so it describes a habit which is expected or unsurprising. This is often because the person (or, in this case, the animal) in question insists on doing something or will not be deterred from it, so it is something that (a) you can expect and/or (b) you cannot avoid. We often use this to describe irritating or excessive behaviour, as I said before.
All answers are possible here. You can use 'would' in this case because the speaker does not know if the monkey actually has the chance to steal anything. The monkey could be in a cage, for example, making the situation entirely hypothetical.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thanks for giving an answer.
Hello team,
I would be grateful if u could help me with the below.
Early one morning, the wife opens the house door and finds that the family car has been damaged.
Wife: Oh My God! Someone damaged our car last night!
Husband: It must be Jack who did this.
Wife: What makes you think it was Jack.
Husband: We do not have any enemies except Jack.
(a) Only Jack would do this to our car.
(b) Only Jack would have done this to our car.
In this context, is (a) correct or is (b) correct?, or are both correct?
Okay, that is all. Thanks.
Hello Yornis,
Either one can be correct in this context. (a) makes a general statement about Jack. It could (but does not necessarily) suggest that the speaker was expecting this to happen at some time or another.
(b) refers more directly to what happened overnight.
There isn't necessarily a big difference in meaning between one or the other statements in the moment.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Thanks for a reply.
Hello team,
Thanks for a reply.
I have a circle of friends which number 100. One of them is 13-year-old Henry. Henry is currently dating a girl.
Someone says:
(1) Many WILL think Henry is too young to be dating.
Correct me if I am wrong, I am sure the use of "will" here means "assume something is the case".
(2) Many WOULD think Henry is too young to be dating.
(a) The "would" here is to make one's opinion sound less forceful, am I right?
(b) However, do you agree with me if I say "would" in this context
can also be used like "will" in no.1 above, that is "would" here can also be used to mean "assume something is the case"?
Thank you.
Hello Yornis,
I'd say that 'will' is a prediction of expected behaviour. It's possible to use (2) here, but unless there's some other context (e.g. 'If societal norms hadn't changed so much'), I think (1) is more appropriate.
I suppose that in both cases you could say that 'assume something is the case' is effectively the idea, but I think the idea of predicting expected behaviour is a more versatile way of thinking about it that will make sense in a great variety of situations.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello team,
Before I continue, I would like to thank you for replying.
Actually it is embarrassing for me to say I do not fully understand
your explanation. However, just a simple "yes" and "no" answers to the below will make me fully understand your explanation above.
(1) You are saying the most likely function of "will" in my "story"
above is to express "prediction of expected behaviour". This, I fully understand.
(2) You also said that the use of "WILL" in my "story" to express "assume something is the case" is also a possible answer, am I right?
(3) Besides "will", using "WOULD" in my "story" to express "assume something is the case" is also a possible answer, am I right?
(4) I apologise if I am wrong, but I think you overlooked part (a) of my question no. 2, that is:
"would" in my "story" above can also be used to make one's opinion sound less forceful. Am I right here?
(5) When you said "It's possible to use (2) here, but unless there's some other context (e.g "If societal norms hadn't changed so much"), I think (1) is more appropriate." When you wrote (2), did you mean (2)(a) or (2)(b)?
Thanks.
Hello Yornis,
OK, sorry about that!
(2) in this particular case, yes, I think you can understand that it means 'assume something is the case', but 'will' doesn't always mean this.
(3) it is possible in some situations, but not always possible.
(4) yes, it could make the statement less forceful. We normally say that it makes the statement about a hypothetical situation, which makes it easier for others to disagree.
(5) I meant '(2) Many WOULD think Henry is too young to be dating.' In other words, I think people would say 'Many will think Henry is too young to be dating' instead of 'Many would think Henry is too young to be dating'. But in a specific hypothetical situation, 'Many would think ...' is possible.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Thank you
Hello teachers,
(1) Hope you can help me with the below. It is from a rerun of an American comedy show originally shown in the 80's.
Councilman Perry's term in office is expiring soon and he will stand for re-election next month. He now tells a friend why he fired his previous assistant recently.
Councilman Perry: He was pocketing the money that he collected for my campaign. He would tell people to make their political contributions to me in cash. WOULD you believe that some people were foolish enough to do it?
What is the function of "would" in the last line above?
(2)The below is from an American detective series:
Detective: Your name "wouldn't" happen to be Liz, would it?
What is the function of "wouldn't/would" here?
Thank you.
Regarding my question, I am sorry for wrongly putting an "inverted commas" for "wouldn't" in the below:
Detective: Your name wouldn't happen to be Liz, would it?
It was a careless mistake on my part.
Hello Yornis,
Please post your question as a new topic rather than as a series of questions in one long thread. Otherwise the whole page will be covered in a single thread growing ever narrower. We'll be happy to answer it then.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello teachers,
I was asked to post my question as a new topic. I hope I have done the right thing here. I looked for the first question of the front page and am now typing below that question. If it still does not appear as a new topic to readers, please give me instructions on how to do it.
Here, I am typing my question again, hoping that it appears as a new topic.
(1) Teachers, I hope you can help me with the below. It is from a rerun of an American comedy show, which was originally shown in the 80's.
Councilman Perry's term in office is expiring soon and he will stand for re-election next month.He now tells a friend why he fired his previous assistant recently.
Councilman Perry: He was pocketing the money that he collected for my campaign. He would tell people to make their political contributions to me (through him) in cash. WOULD you believe that some people were foolish enough to do it?
What is the function of "would" in the last line above?
(2) The below is from an American detective series:
Detective: Your name wouldn't happen to be Liz, would it?
What is the function of "wouldn't/would" here?
Thank you.
Hello again Yornis,
This is still a reply to another question. To post a new topic, scroll to the bottom of the page and write your question in the box headed 'Add new comment'.
In answer to your question:
We often use would to express opinions or preferences like this. You can imagine it as a form of conditional without the if-clause: If I asked you, would you believe...?
Here, would signals that the speaker is not sure if they are correct, making the sentence ostensibly more polite - though in fact it may be quite the opposite in certain contexts. It's often used when the something has just occurred to the speaker, or when the speaker wants it to sound like something has just occurred to them.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you
Can you explain what is meant by "less direct" in the use of "would?
I would suggest you buy the black one.
The reason that someone uses "would" is to make the suggestion sound less direct.
Hello Rakus,
The concepts 'direct' and 'less direct' are metaphors we use to point out one aspect of many communicative situations. For example, in the one you're asking about, let's say that I work in a shop. A customer arrives and wants to buy a backpack. She knows which kind of backpack she wants but is hesitating which color to choose and asks me for my opinion, i.e. for a suggestion.
If I were to give her advice in a 'direct way', I could just issue a command such as 'Buy the black one.' The problem is, among many native speakers (perhaps especially of English, but also of many other Indo-European languages), this would probably be perceived as slightly rude, especially if I hadn't developed and rapport with the other person. The idea is that I'm not considering the customer's feelings; it's as if I'm imposing my ideas on hers. (You can of course disagree with this analysis of the situation, but it is roughly the way many people think as far as I know.)
A corollary of this analysis of this is that if we want to be polite, we should be 'less direct' or 'indirect'. A very common way of being less direct is to use 'would' for suggestions or requests. This is because we can use 'would' to speak of a hypothetical situation, i.e. an imaginary situation. The idea is that we present an imaginary situation that bears some relationship to the real situation, and then the other person can choose to go along with our suggestion or reject without losing face or insulting us. The idea is 'If I were you (but I'm not and it's OK if you disagree), I would buy the black one.'
Does that make sense?
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello, I see Peter M's use of "would" when answering a member's question as in "The best construction would be as follows". How does "would" work in this context?
We say 'I would suggest' when we want to be is a little more tentative/a little less direct than 'I suggest'. It's a way to be more polite and less pushy in terms of giving advice. After this phrase we generally avoid modal verbs like should as suggest already contains this meaning. The best construction would be as follows:
(https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_dengxiaoping.html#top)
Wealthy Nationalists were financing the training of young revolutionaries in Moscow who would restore China's dignity. Among Deng's fellow students was Chiang Ching-kno, son of the Nationalist Party leader Chiang Kai-shek. Much later, in the 1980s, the younger Chiang would succeed his father as president of Taiwan... It was at this time that Deng, not known for his aphorisms, made his most famous statement: "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice." Although he himself would later say he was not sure exactly what he had meant, it was very clearly an affirmation of pragmatism in economic policy in the aftermath of the fanaticism of the Great Leap. It was also a phrase that would find resonance around the world.
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My Questions: I have come across this structure many times when reading a famous person’s past history but I still don’t understand why WOULD is used instead of LATER + simple past.
Are the following correct (later + simple past )? What's the difference?
… the younger Chiang later succeeded his father as president of Taiwan… … Although he himself later said he was not sure exactly what he had meant... …It was also a phrase that later found resonance around the world.
Hello Curiosity,
In these examples 'would' is the past form of 'will'. All of these examples could be expressed with 'will' if the text were referring to the future:
Of course, this would require knowledge of the future, so it's not something we're likely to see. However, when we have knowledge of the future and are describing something in the past, we can use 'would' to describe what is to come. It's sometimes called 'future in the past' and you can read more about it here:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/future-in-the-past
You can use a past form with a time marker such as 'later', just as you can use a present form with a time marker instead of 'will'. The difference is the same: 'will' or 'would' gives a sense of prediction and looking ahead, while the past or present tenses are more neutral and describe a simple sequence of actions.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team