Ask Lemmy
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
view the rest of the comments
"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".