would
/wəd/ verb A1- Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time. · On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.· Hi! I thought I'd come over and introduce myself. My name’s Chema.
- Used to, did repeatedly, habitually; indicates an action that happened several times in the past (cannot describe continuous states, as in I used to live in London) · When we were younger, we would cycle out to the beach most summer Sundays.
- Was or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something. · I asked her to stay in with me, but she would go out.
- Used as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality, indicating a state or action that is conditional on another. · If I won the lottery, I would give half the money to charity.· I'd never do anything that went against my conscience.
- Without explicit condition, or with loose or vague implied condition, indicating a hypothetical or imagined state or action. · I would love to come and visit.· Look at that yummy cake! I would eat that all up!
- Suggesting conditionality or potentiality in order to express a sense of politeness, tentativeness, indirectness, hesitancy, uncertainty, etc. · I would ask you all to sit down.· I would imagine that they have already left.
- Used to express what the speaker would do in another person's situation, as a means of giving a suggestion or recommendation. · It's disgraceful the way that they've treated you. I would write and complain.
- Used to express the speaker's belief or assumption. · She looked as if she would be sick.· He's very security-conscious, so he would have remembered to lock the door.
Verb forms
- Base form
- would
- He/she/it
- woulds
- Past
- woulded
- Past participle
- woulded
- -ing form
- woulding
From the library
“Gently, gently,” said the old man, with a smile; “and by your leave I will use your purse moderately, for they would say, if they saw me buy too many things at a time, that I had been obliged to await your return, in order to be able to purchase them.”
“It would be as easy as to give the Scarecrow brains.”
“Come along,” said the Scarecrow heartily, and Dorothy added that she would be pleased to have his company.
“For,” he said, “if I should get caught in the rain, and rust again, I would need the oil-can badly.”
Other matches
Learn would in real texts
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