How to Use Would in English - English Modal Verbs

hi I'm Ike welcome to Oxford online English in this lesson you can learn about the modal verb would in English you'd like to learn more about wood and what it means if I asked you to tell me all the meanings and uses of wood right now would you be able to like all Myrdal verbs would can have many different meanings these different meanings aren't connected to each other which can make it difficult to work out what wood means in different sentences all situations in this class you'll see all the use of wood and the meanings let's start with the most important use of wood imagine your friend asks you what would you do if you're attacked by a shark why does your friend use wood in this question and how should you answer probably your answer would also include wood maybe something like I probably try to hit it on the nose or poke it in the eye or something like that maybe I just tried to swim away so any ideas why do you use wood here it's because getting attacked by a shark is very unlikely we use wood when we talk about things which are either very unlikely or totally impossible for example what would you do if you could read people's thoughts reading people's thoughts is impossible so we use wood it's a question about an imaginary situation I would help you if I could I can't help you so I use wood to show that that's impossible this is like saying I can't help you she would be here but she has too much work at the moment she's not here although she would be if she didn't have so much work in all of these cases when you use wood you're talking about situation which isn't true and which you think will never happen that's what it means when you use was like this you're saying I think this thing never happened if I won the lottery I would you say wood because you don't think you'll ever win the lottery you can use wood have plus a past participle to talk about the past in the same way for example what would you have said if she'd seen you she didn't see you so you didn't say anything to her I'm asking you a question about an imaginary situation I'm saying imagine a different version of the past where she did see you I wouldn't have come if I'd known it was going to go on so late I didn't know it was going to go on so late so I did come but now I regret it imagine you're at an event and you have to get up early tomorrow the event goes on much later than you expected so you say this he wouldn't have been much help anyway he wasn't there so he couldn't help but even if he had been there he wouldn't have been able to help us this is the most common way to use wood and probably the most complicated however wood has many other uses let's look if you want to ask someone do something for you using wood in your request can make it sound more polite for example can you tell me the time will you get me a sandwich I want something to eat all of these requests are quite informal that can be fine depending on the situation but sometimes you want to be a bit more formal so that you sound polite wood can be useful here look at the sentences can you see how to use wood okay let's check your ideas would you mind telling me at a time would you get me a sandwich I'd like something to eat using would you mind plus ing is a very polite way to make a request you can also use wood in place of will in a request this makes it a little more formal and polite finally using wood like instead of want is better unless you're in a very informal situation to be clear these are the only ways to use wood there are other possible answers for example you could say tell me the time would you would you mind getting me a sandwich these are possible the first answers I gave you are the most obvious also let's get something clear there's no connection between these different uses of wood we use wood to make a polite request like you're doing here there's no connection with the idea of imaginary or in real situations that you saw in part 1 ok let's move on and look at another way to use wood imagine you have a friend who's always late for everything you're meeting your friend tomorrow and you're really annoyed that you always have to wait you tell your friend to be on time and she replies I'll be on time I promise I'll get an earlier bus which will get to the center by three o'clock now imagine that is a few days later and you want to tell me what your friend said to you how would you do it you were to say something like my friend promised you'd be on time she said she'd get an earlier bus which she said would arrive by three o'clock of course when she turned up it was nearly full do you see what's happening here every time your friend says will you say would when you're talking about what your friend said English learners often say something like would is the past tense of will that's true sometimes but not generally for example for the uses of wood you saw in parts 1 & 2 it's not helpful or accurate to say that wood is the past tense of will however a reported speech is a good way to think about it there's one more case where wood has a past meaning connected to will do you know what I'm talking about both will and wood can have the meaning of refusing to do something for example I'll ask him but he won't help me he'll refuse to help me in the future I asked him but he wouldn't help me he refused to help me in the past in this case you can see wood as the past version he will you can use this to talk about people they wouldn't give me my money back even though I had the receipt they refused to give me my money back you can also use it to talk about things my car wouldn't start this morning my car refused to start ok cars can't literally refuse to start but we often talk about machines computers and things like that in this way here's a similar example when he try to show me the fire wouldn't open so here in part 3 reported speech the meanings of will and wood are connected when you're thinking about will and wood it's important to remember that sometimes the meanings are connected and sometimes they're completely different we'll come back to this point at the end of the lesson there's one more way to use wood that we need to look at you can use wood to talk about things in the past but don't do now for example my mum would walk us to school when we were little when I was training for the marathon I would go running for two hours every day after work it was exhausting what is similar to used to here but it's not exactly the same when you use wood like this you can only talk about repeated actions in the past you can't talk about States and situations like you can with use too so you can't say I would live in a small flat with my friends when I was a student that's not correct because live is a state not an action however this sentence is okay I would go out with my friends most evenings when I was a student this is fine because go out is an action so now you've seen all the different ways you can use wood in English let's review what you've learned today what has five common use of in English it can be used to talk about imaginary or real situations to make polite requests in reported speech as the past version of will to mean refused to and to talk about repeated actions in the past when you are learning about wood one of the most important things to get clear in your head is the relationship between will and would sometimes will and wood are connected if you're using reported speech or using wood to mean refuse to then would behave like a past version of will however in the other uses of wood there's no connection between will and wood in fact in the most common use of wood talking about imaginary or in real situations will would have almost opposite meanings for example if someone says I'll help you with will you can expect them to help you in reality if someone says I would help you it would then you shouldn't expect them to help you will and would have completely different meanings here it's also good to remember the different use of wood aren't connected to each other at all the meaning of wood depends completely on the sentence and the situation finally wood can refer to different times depending on how you're using wood for example I would come tomorrow but I've already made other plans would you pass me that blue bag I asked them to change my ticket but they wouldn't do anything these three sentences are about the future the present and the past respectively so you can't say what time wood refers to by itself it can refer to any time depending on the meaning and the context most importantly what doesn't necessarily have a past meaning sometimes it does but it can also refer to the present or future what's the best way to improve your understanding of this topic practice of course check out the full version of this free lesson on our website Oxford online English comm where there's a quiz to check how well you understood these ideas thanks a lot for watching and I will see you next time

Channel: Oxford Online English

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Id: FxA8zXBOPGc

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2017