this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
83 points (91.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26875 readers
2133 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 funDoxxing, 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 spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust 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:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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] 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

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."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (3 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

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".

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)