this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
83 points (91.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26933 readers
1944 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

hii,

I am learning English for around 5 years and I still can't comprehend the meaning of "would" and "count" in some context. are they just past form of "will" and "can"?

"would you like coffee" means a person is asking if you liked coffee in past? "I would do it" means I did it in past?

I really don't understand since my language doesn't have anything like those words.

Edit: Thank you for answering my naive question :)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] skeezix@lemmy.world 57 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Will do: it is certain he do it in future.

Would do: it is certain he decide to do now or in future it if he has ability to do and/or knows about it and/or nothing else stop him.

Would have done: it is certain he decide to do in past if he had ability to do and/or knew about it and/or nothing else stop him.

Can do: he have ability to do now or in future.

Could do: he have ability to do now or in future if he decide to do and/or no external condition that stops it being done.

Could have done: he had the ability, he didn't do in past (maybe there are reasons).

would = intent to do if there is ability.
could = ability to do if there is intent.

  • intent: the desire to do and/or the knowledge that it needs to be done and/or no external condition that stops it being done.

"would you like coffee" = If I give to you ability to drink coffee right now, what is your answer, Yes or No?

"I would do it" = If nothing stops me and I have the ability to do, then I do it. This is said with knowledge that some condition must be met before you can do it:
"I would drink that coffee if you give it to me."
It is letting the listener know that you intend to do action, but it first requires some other thing to happen which gives you ability.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is a great write up BUT there are other mistakes you should fix since you're helping someone learn. "He have" instead of "he has," etc.

[–] thelasttoot@lemmy.world -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Will do can also mean enough. Like,

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] thelasttoot@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The more I thought about what I was trying to say the less it made sense so I intended to delete it but I guess I submitted the unfinished post instead