Essential English Grammar: WILL or WOULD?

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Welcome to www.engvid.com.

In today's video, we're going to look at a little bit of grammar, and more specifically,

we're going to look at the two verbs "will" and "would".

And the reason I'm focusing only on these two verbs is because people often mix up when

to use one or the other.

So, it's very important that you understand the function, the functions of each word,

and see how they're used in actual sentences to understand why you choose one and not the

So, let's look at, first of all, the actual functions of these words.

And keep in mind that in some cases, "would" is actually the past tense of "will", but

I'll get into that in a moment.

So, first of all, when we use "will", we're talking about the future, always, and we're

looking at something that's either a fact, although technically you can't say anything

about the future as fact because we don't know.

The better way to think of it is it's a real possibility, right?

Facts, until they actually happen, you don't know.

So, a real possibility.

"Would", on the other hand, is we use to...

When we talk about an unreal past, so something in the past that could have been different,

When I give you the example sentence, you'll understand what I mean.

But it's not real, that's the key, and it's in the past, not the future.

So, that's very important to remember.

Mostly, the most common use of "would" is to talk about something that is hypothetical.

Hypothetical basically means it's not real, it's imaginary.

You're talking about, basically, if a situation could happen, right?

You're talking about... that's the key word there, "if", "maybe".

Probably not, but maybe, right?

And again, when we see examples, you'll understand.

And we also use it to report speech, so we call this indirect reported speech.

I am saying what somebody else said.

So, I'm...

Somebody said something to me, I'm telling you what that person said.

So, that's indirect reported speech.

And in this case, "would" acts as the past tense of "will", and we're going to see examples

of that as well.

So, let's start with a couple of sentences, here.

He will make new friend...

He will make many new friends at school.

So, my wife and I are talking, we're worried about our son.

Our son is going to university in a different city, and my wife is worried that he'll be

And I say, "Don't worry.

He will make many new friends at school."

Now, is that a fact?

No, because I don't know.

Maybe he won't make many new friends at school.

Maybe everybody will hate him.

It's unlikely, but it's definitely a real possibility.

Based on his character, based on his history, most likely this is what will happen, so future

He would make new friends at school.

Now, there's two ways I need to complete this sentence.

He would make new friends at school is not a complete sentence because of this word "would".

As soon as you see this word, you know that something is not true, is not real.

So, "He would make new friends" means now no new friends.

So, whenever you see a sentence that uses "would" as the helping verb to the main verb,

right away you understand that now whatever follows is actually not true, is not the case.

He would make new friends if he went out more.

So, right now he just sits in his room, he goes to class and then goes and sits in his

dorm room all day and doesn't come out.

So, obviously he's not making new friends.

So, if he went out, and I'm using an unreal conditional here, "if" plus simple past verb.

If he went out, he would make new friends.

Or, he would make new friends at school, comma, but he doesn't go out much.

Here, I'm using the "but" to show a contrast, and I'm using the present verb to show you

what the actual situation is now.

Now, technically I can go straight from school to "but", but even if I do this, this is where

it gets a little confusing.

This is understood, I just don't need to say it.

So, bear with me.

I'm going to give you the whole full sentence.

He would make many new friends at school if he went out more, but he doesn't go out much,

so he doesn't make new friends.

That's the full thing.

I don't want to say all that.

That's a lot of words that don't all need to be expressed.

I can just take this out completely, and just go to this conclusion, right?

"But he doesn't go out much."

So, now, not making friends, why?

He doesn't go out.

But the key here is I'm talking about unreal situation, hypothetical situation, now.

We're going to look at some other examples to understand the other functions.

Okay, so now I have a few more examples for you.

They're not in any particular order, but I'll explain each one as we go.

So, now we're going to look at reported speech.

There are two types.

There's direct, and then there's indirect.

Direct reported speech will be inside quotation marks.

They could be happy, too, if you want them to be, but anyway.

Quotation marks means this is exactly the words that the person used when he spoke to

And now I'm telling it to somebody else, right?

I'm reporting to a third person.

So, if I'm using a direct with the quote, I don't change anything.

I take exactly the words that were given to me.

Now, in writing, you will notice there's a comma, quotation mark, everything, period,

quotation mark.

Then there is indirect reported speech.

So, this person said the words to me, and I'm more or less paraphrasing to the next

So, I would say, "He said he would call."

Now, that, because technically this is a noun clause, but most people just drop that.

You don't need it.

That's why I put it in bracket.

You can put it, you can take it out, both okay.

"He said he would call."

Now, a general rule or the rule of indirect reported speech is that the verb goes one

So, "will", the only back you can go with "will" is "would".

This is the past tense of "would", and that's why I'm using that in the indirect reported

So, here he's talking about the future, here he's still talking about the future, but I'm

reporting it as the past, because he said it to me in the past, "said".

So, that's reported.

And here we're going to get a little bit tricky, so just prepare yourselves for it.

I'm going to start with one sentence, and I'm going to finish it three different ways.

Three different ways.

"In order to get a promotion, she would need to make more sales."

"In order to get a promotion, she will need to make more sales."

Or "In order to get a promotion, she would have needed to make more sales."

All three sentences are correct.

The meaning's slightly different, so let's start.

"In order to get a promotion at work", she wants to get a higher position, "she would

need to make more sales."

Now, we understand that "would" is a hypothetical, it's not real, meaning that she probably won't,

will not make more sales.

Maybe there's not enough time, maybe she doesn't have enough clients, maybe she's just not

very good at sales, so it's very unlikely that she will.

So, for this situation to be true, this situation would be... need to be true, but it's not,

and I'm using "would".

On the other hand, if I say "She will need to make more sales", means she has another

six months, if she works really hard, she can get these sales and she can get her promotion.

So, this is a real possibility.

Unreal possibility, she has no chance.

Real possibility, she has a very good chance of doing it.

And again, both are correct, but you have to pay attention to what the actual...

When somebody says this, what are they meaning?

Here, I know she's not getting the promotion.

Here, I think she can get the promotion.

Then, in order to get a promotion, she would have needed to make more sales.

This is the past, but you cannot change the past.

So, in order to get a promotion...

So, right this week, the boss is deciding who is getting promotions.

It's too late for her to get more sales.

The sales needed to be in the past.

It didn't happen.

She would have needed to, but she didn't.

That's understood.

"But she didn't", "would have", they go together.

In the past, you can't change it, it's not real, she's not getting the promotion.

So, no promotion, yes promotion, no promotion.

If you understand the way things are structured, right?

And this is what you have to pay close attention to, especially in spoken English.

In spoken English, the word "would" or "will", they go by very fast, so you need to pick

A native speaker, for example, if somebody says to me, "Well, she would have needed to

do that", she would have needed.

But I can pick up the "would have" and understand that she didn't.

A non-native speaker might not pick that word up and not understand the full context of

So, you have to pay very close attention to that.

So, that's another use of "will" in "would".

We're going to go to the last sample.

Now, this is going to be a little bit more confusing because this is introducing a whole

other grammatical tense.

"She will have met her goals by then", "She would have met her goals if she had tried

So, let's start with the "would".

"She would have met her goals", this is the same as this one.

We're talking about an unreal past.

In the past, this was possible, but now the past is gone, it didn't happen, it's not possible

Can't change the past.

And here, it's easier to understand because of the "if".

If she had tried, with a past perfect.

So, she...

If she did it, if she had tried harder, she would have met her goals.

She didn't try hard enough, she didn't meet her goal.

Here, "will have met", this is a future perfect.

Future perfect means that then, whatever that future time is, means her goals will be met.

But again, future perfect, I'm not going to really get into now, that's a whole other

video by itself.

But just so you can compare, "will have", "would have", both of them can be used with

The meanings are very, very different.

Future real, past unreal, and it's very important that you learn to pay attention to "will"

and "would", because A, they're spoken very quickly, and B, they sound not that far from

each other, because "would", "would".

In writing, obviously, much easier, you'll see it.

But in writing, you have to be careful to use the correct version.

And for example, let's say we're talking about IELTS or TOEFL essays, very, very often I

see people using "would" when they should be using "will".

Not so much the other way around.

And I think the reason is people think that "would" is a more formal verb.

"Will" has a function, "would" has a function, use them correctly.

There's no such thing as formal or informal verbs in terms of usage.

Formal and informal vocabulary does not formal or informal grammar, so be careful about that

in your writing.

I hope that all made sense to you.

Of course, you may have to watch the video again to get all the little details, but if

you have any questions, go to www.engvid.com and ask me in the comments section.

I'll be happy to help you out some more there.

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Take the quiz, make sure you can understand all the different subtleties, all the slight

differences between the two uses, and test yourself and take the quiz, and hopefully

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