When Grammar Rules list the USES of these two structures they say that they are both used for...
And that there is also a difference between them when used for PAST HABITS, namely....
And WHY is that?
I said before that Tenses 'PRIMARILY' describe...
But the COMPLETE ANSWER is that the Tenses describe...
TIME is one type of 'Distance'. There are 2 more. Any idea what they might be?
Think about CAN and COULD. What is the difference between them?
Which of these two sentences is for the PAST and which is for the PRESENT?
I can do it.
I could do it.
Which of these two sentences means PROBABLE and which is for IMPROBABLE?
If I can do it...
If I could do it...
Which of these two sentences is FORMAL or INDIRECT and which is INFORMAL / DIRECT?
Can you give me...?
Could you give me...?
So we could say that when an action has NO DISTANCE, when it is PRESENT, PROBABLE and INFORMAL then we use the...
So we could say that when an action has A DISTANCE, when it is PAST, IMPROBABLE and FORMAL then we use the...
Or when we are being PERSONAL ME, NOW, REAL we use...
and when we are being FORMAL ME, PAST, UNREAL we use...
Ok... And what about the FUTURE?
What is a more FORMAL version of "WILL you do this for me?"?
What is a more IMPROBABLE version of "If you can, I WILL be happy."?
And when we start studying the FUTURE in PART 8, we will see that it is a RESPONSE.
[It is something that has no previous, the action is not before... DON'T PANIC!]
For example:
"When my mum arrives home I WILL make her a cup of tea."
[The tea will not be made before she comes home.]
And what is the PAST of that sentence?
So WOULD is ALSO A RESPONSE!
BUT it is a response in the...
So WOULD is the distant version of WILL.
Just like COULD is the distant version of CAN.
So if WOULD represents a response to a situation, why can it not be used for STATES in the PAST?
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