# would

Pronunciation: say "WUUD" /wʊd/

## Verb

1. Used to talk about an imagined or possible situation, or the result that would follow from a condition, whether stated or only implied.
   - Simple: Used to talk about something that could happen if things were different, as in 'it would be nice'.
   - _If the train were cheaper, more people would take it._
   - _We would have arrived on time if the road had been open._
2. Used to mark something that lay ahead relative to a past moment, or to report a past 'will'.
   - Simple: Used for something that was still to come at a time in the past.
   - _She left in the spring and would not return for years._
   - _They promised they would write._
3. Used to make a statement, opinion or piece of advice sound softer or more polite, as in 'I would suggest' or 'I would ask her first'.
   - Simple: Used to make what you say, or your advice, sound softer and more polite.
   - _I would suggest waiting until Monday._
   - _I would say the meeting went rather well, all things considered._
4. Used in questions to make a polite request, more softly than 'will you' or 'can you'.
   - Simple: Used in a question to ask someone politely to do something.
   - _Would you open the door for me?_
   - _Would you please sign here?_
5. Used for an action repeated habitually in the past, but not for a continuing state.
   - Simple: Used for things that happened again and again in the past.
   - _On Sundays she would bake bread for the whole street._
   - _He would sit by the window for hours._
6. What could be expected given the situation or a person's character ('well, he would, wouldn't he?', 'I wouldn't know'); often knowing or dismissive.
   - Simple: Used for what someone can be expected to do, given who they are.
   - _Naturally the manager would deny it._
   - _You would forget the tickets, wouldn't you?_
7. Expressing a confident assumption about what the speaker believes to be the case.
   - Simple: Used for something you believe is true, but have not checked.
   - _That would be the postman at the door._
   - _Someone's knocking, so that would be the plumber we called this morning._
9. Was determined to, with the word stressed in speech.
   - Simple: Was determined to do something and insisted on doing it, even when others objected.
   - _We begged her to wait until the storm passed, but she would drive home that night._
   - _She would have her own way._
8. Was willing to; used especially with not to say that someone refused or that something failed to work.
   - Simple: Was willing to. In 'would not' it means someone refused, or something did not work.
   - _I asked him twice to slow down, but he would not listen._
   - _The old car would not start on cold mornings, so she took the bus._

## Noun

11. A possibility or hypothetical, usually plural and paired with coulds and shoulds.
   - Simple: Something that would happen in other circumstances, used as a noun.
   - _Looking back on his career, he refused to get lost in the coulds, woulds, and shoulds._
   - _After the divorce, she stopped torturing herself with the woulds and shoulds and started planning her new life._

## Interjection

12. Short for I would: a one-word verdict that the speaker finds the person pictured or mentioned sexually attractive. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Short for I would: slang for saying you find someone sexually attractive.
   - _The fitness model's latest post drew hundreds of replies, most of them a simple 'would.'_
   - _Asked what she thought of her friend's new neighbor, she grinned and texted back one word: 'Would.'_

## Verb

10. Used with the following infinitive omitted or postponed. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An old use where the verb after would is left out, as in 'he would to London'.
13. Meaning 'I wish', usually in the first person and often with 'that', followed by a past subjunctive. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An old way to say 'I wish', as in 'would that it were true'.
   - _Would that we had met sooner._
   - _I would that the war were over and my sons were home._

## Origin

From Old English wolde, the past tense of willan, the ancestor of will. The /l/ fell silent, probably because the word was so often unstressed, as in should; could later borrowed the silent l in spelling from these two.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/would (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).