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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Will or Would?
Will or Would?
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cheezels
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Will or Would?
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Context:
The student has been asked to speak on what actions they would take if they were the boss and certain things had happened in the office..
ie: your colleague turns up smelling of alcohol, things are going missing from the office, the secretary arrives late every day and is going home early without permission etc..
I have had some students write:
I will talk to them and ask.....
I will give them a formal warning....
I will....
Now I have corrected their writing by changing the I will to I would....
The bit I am stuck on is the reason why.
Why should they use WOULD instead of WILL.
I have found in English Grammar in Use there is a small section saying that we use "would or wouldn �t" when we are imagining a situation or action.
But this is all I have found.
Does anyone have a better more comprehensive answer? (My students are BEC Vantage level)the difference between the two and why they cannot use will in this way.
I want to be able to give them something concrete to be able to understand so that they do not keep making this error.
Thanks!!!!
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29 Nov 2009
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Mariethe House
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I would say it �s just a question of tense agreement, sequence of tenses:
if it rains ( present) I will ( future) go ........
If it rained ( past) I ( would) go ( conditional).......
if it had rained ( past perfect) I would have ( past conditional) gone....
hope it helps!The last two tenses are imaginary, the action is submitted to an imaginary situation whereas in the first one it is real , indicative.
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29 Nov 2009
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baiba
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If the question contains �would � (What actions would they take if they were...), the answers should follow this pattern (They would...). The sentences will all be about a hypothetical action.
If the situation is a real one and you ask �What will you do...�, then students have to answer �I will...�
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29 Nov 2009
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cheezels
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Thanks! The question contained the word "would" ie: How would you handle the situations listed below...
THANKS for your answers!
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29 Nov 2009
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RabbitWho
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Second conditional for something unlikely and imagined.
First conditional: if it rains this weekend I will stay at home. (There is a good chance it will rain this weekend, it is possible. )
Second conditional: If I won the lottery I would buy a house. (There is a tiny chance this will happen. )
It is not likely any of their employees will come into work drunk so we use the second conditional.
Imagine one of the employees was a known alcoholic and had allready come to work drunk once. Then you would say: If he comes to work drunk again, we will fire him. (There is a good chance this will happen. )
I have a worksheet which is an overview of conditionals 0,1,2, and 3 if you �d like to look at it, there are lots of other worksheets on the site about it too. |
29 Nov 2009
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libertybelle
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I can �t give you all the grammatical terms for this but
it �s an imaginative situation so it is something you would do if in
that situation. Will is something you are going to do.
That �s the best I can do to explain.
L
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29 Nov 2009
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RabbitWho
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Liberty Belle: Will is not only something you are going to do. That �s a contradiction in terms. Something you are going to do is something you are going to do!
Will is for a prediction a promise or an instant decision.
It �s also as part of a conditional, something that you MIGHT do IF conditions are favorable. Like i said "If I see Bill I will tell him you said hi!" - First conditional for a likely possibility. "If I saw Napoleon I would ask to try on his hat." - Second conditional for something unlikely or impossible.
These are more than grammatical terms; these are functions; something you should learn if you are teaching English, whether it is your first language or not, because students will need them.
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29 Nov 2009
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libertybelle
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But Rabbit - there is a big difference between:
to want to do something/will do something/would do something/would like to/am going to
Functions, the living and ever changing language and grammatical terms written a long time ago don �t always coincide.
How do you perceive the differences between:
I am going to visit you tonight
I will visit you tonight
I would like to visit you tonight
I would visit you tonight (if I could)
I want to visit you tonight
I shall visit you tonight
I should visit you tonight
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29 Nov 2009
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Jayho
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Hi everyone
Interesting discussion.
Are these links of any use to anyone?
Swan also has a lot of info on this in his ever-useful Practical English Usage.
Cheers
Jayho
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29 Nov 2009
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cheezels
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Your first link Jayho is really good. I am going to post it for my students tomorrow.
I have read Swan as well... unfortunately it doesn �t really say anywhere why (in my context).
The uses of will and would are explained well in other contexts but not mine.
I know that "would" is the correct term to use but other explanations in books and online have been a little vague in this area.
As Libertybell has pointed out it can be a fuzzy area to explain.
I have already explained to them that it is because it is a hypothetical situation and you are talking about what you WOULD do IF it happened.
In the context of the question they cannot answer "will" as they are not really the boss and they are not in real life going to do the things they have suggested.
I am going to add in next week about if the question to them has would in it... then to use would in their answer instead of will.
I think that Swedish speakers in general avoid using the word "would" as I have noticed it a lot... they use should and will instead of "would" quite frequently in their writing.
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29 Nov 2009
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RabbitWho
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Liberty Bell: I �m sorry but there are clear differences.
You are confusing the different uses of would. As a model, as part of a conditional, as the past tense of will etc. etc.
These things have been written about extensively and should be common knowledge to anyone teaching English!
I am going to visit you tonight - a plan
I will visit you tonight - a promise or instant decision
I would like to visit you tonight - a request
I would visit you tonight (if I could) - second conditional
I want to visit you tonight - expression of desire
I shall visit you tonight - in modern English this is the same as "I will visit you tonight" but more formal/Brittish. (Will used to be conjugated: I shall you will he will/she will we shall you they will It is still this way in England but not in the rest of the world for the most part. I should visit you tonight - personal opinion of what is the best course of action.
Look up modal verbs and conditionals.
Cheezels, you are right now, the reason why you need to use second conditional here is a typical one. It is not a real or likely situation.
Czech students too have difficulty choosing between the first and second conditional as in Czech "likelihood" is generally not a factor in conditional clauses, even in English it �s not something that native speakers are consciously aware of. The same goes with the use of the correct future form. But conscious or subconscious these are concrete things and using them incorrectly can lead to misunderstandings so students need to know the rules which have been worked out and written about for a reason.
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29 Nov 2009
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