Would, could, might

Steve: Hi Jill.

Jill: Hello again.

Steve: How would you like to talk a little bit about would , might , may , could , should and all those verbs.

Jill: Alright, sounds good.

Steve: You know, this is, ah, I think, a major, um, area of confusion for many learners. those kinds of verbs even have a term that describes them. They are called modal verbs. M O D A L. Nobody needs to know that, as far as I'm concerned. Jill: And you know what? Most native English speakers wouldn't know that. Steve: But, it is true that there is some confusion and, would, I think, is, is, you know, a very important one; would, because it's used a lot in polite terms. You know, would you please tell me where the post office is.

Jill: Right.

Steve: You know. Ah, I would like to, ah, you know, call you sometime. Would it be okay to call you? So, there is Jill: As opposed to just saying can, you know, Steve: Right. Jill: can I call you.

Steve: Right.

Jill: Can you tell me where the post office is?

Steve: Right.

Jill: It is just more polite to use would.

Steve: Well, that's right. And, and it has, because it is more indirect and, I think in every language, when you're more indirect, you're more polite. You know, if you're more direct, gimmie, you know. Give me! Now!

Jill: Give me the information now.

Steve: Now, is direct. And, when you say, you know, would you please? Would you please give me, you know, a cup of coffee? Then, that makes it more polite. But, there's a fair amount of interchange. I mean, you could say, you could say could you please tell me where the train station is? And, so, that again, is, is, ah, you know, it's polite. Would you be so kind as to tell me? You couldn't say could you be so kind, you could, but ah Jill: Yeah, I guess you could. Steve: Yeah, but you would not say might you tell me.

Jill: No.

Steve: No. So, here again, we get back to our old suggestion of allowing people or suggesting to people that they, that they, you know, say these words to see how they operate. But, ah, but getting back to would what's confusing is that would is also used in a past tense. Jill: Past tense.

Steve: You know. Every Saturday I would get up early and take my dog for a run. In other words, it's a habitual sort of past tense. Again, I'm sure there's some technical term for that, but, so, I think it's important to save would and see it in those two types of situations. Jill: We use would a lot. It's very, it's a very common word and I know most people learning English have a really hard time with it. So, I agree, it's an important word to save and review and try to learn. Steve: Right.

And could, of course, has the, has the implication of to be able to do something, you know. Could you please, ah, you know, pour me a cup of coffee? The implication is, you know, are you able to? Are you able to? Whereas would, the implication more is a wish.

Jill: Will you?

Steve: Will you? Will you?

Would you? It's basically a, you know, I think you put your finger on it. We're not experts, so we're not drawing on all kinds of theory, but could, in a sense, is the indirect form of can. Jill: Right.

Steve: Be able to. Whereas would is a sort of an indirect, polite form of will or want. So that, ah, you know, rather than say will you give me the coffee? Would you please give me the coffee? It makes it more indirect.

Jill: Right.

Steve: So, if people then think of the "w" and "w" and the "c" and the "c" so, when you are talking about are you able? Then, can, you know, I can. You know, I could, if you asked me to, I could. Or, I want to. I will, I would, if you ask me nicely. So, really, the could and the would are indirect and, therefore, more polite versions of can and will.

Jill: And, also, the past tense.

Steve: And, of course, they have their, their past tense application. Now, the may and the might, I think there's some, you know, I may means I am allowed to. Might, I might do it is conditional. So, if you were to give me 50 cents, I might do it. Whereas, I may do it is I might and I might not. So, again, it's, you know, I guess we should, we should probably have some theoretical explanation but, I think part of what we're doing here is creating, ah, again, an episode that people can listen to and, I would suggest, that they read it and save these words to see how they perform. They might find that every time they save one of these words it will create some very interesting examples for them. Now, it could be that they won't find any interesting examples. Ah, however, that would be unlikely. Ok?

Jill: Very clever.

Steve: So, there's just so many ways, I think it's one of these things, as I say many times, you know, all the explanations in the world are hard to remember. If they can get used to seeing it in different episodes in a content that they enjoy, that therefore are meaningful content items to them, if they can focus on those phrases and then as they listen the fifth and the sixth and the seventh time, they really start to remember that phrase, you know? I would have done it, if you had told me. You know. I might have done it; whatever. They start to get used to these and, the other thing to remember to is that in many, many cases, they are, interchangeable.

Jill: Right.

Steve: They are interchangeable.

Jill: Right.

You could use either.

Steve: You could use either. It might be one, it might be could once and it might be would the next time.

Jill: That's right. Steve: So, I don't know if we've helped anybody on this, but, there you go. Jill: Maybe confused more Steve: Maybe we confused them, Jill: more people than we helped them, but. Steve: Alright.

Good. I think that's about it. Jill: That's about it for today. Steve: Alright.

Jill: Alright.

Steve: Thank you very much.

Jill: Thank you.

End.