Ask Lemmy

26890 readers

1912 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

what is the actual meaning of "would" and "could"? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

50 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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 :)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I would love it if you could have helped me.

Did I get it right? :D

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You would have got it perfect if you had said “I would have loved it if you could have helped me”, but you could say that you got it right.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

American - i would have said you would have gotten it perfect if you had said...

Brits prefer got?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

No, I think gotten is better there, my sloppiness

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I think the ideal phrasing is slightly different than the other poster. I would instead say "I would love it if you could help me" as that leaves open the possibility of present/future help. Saying "could have helped" presumes that it cannot be done anymore.