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Use of would/future
Forum > English only || BottomUse of would/future
Message from valoris posted on 08-07-2017 at 20:02:21 (D | E | F)
Hi everybody!
In an exercise on the use of “would” to talk about a time in the future from a point in the past, I found these sentences:
January: ‘The building work should be finished by the end of March.’
April: We thought that the building work would be finished / would have been finished by now.
I thought that “would have been finished” was not used to talk about a time in the future from a point in the past, but in conditionals. In other words, I would have considered this solution as wrong.
Can you please help me to understand if both possibilities are correct?
Thank you so much!
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Edited by lucile83 on 08-07-2017 21:05
Message from valoris posted on 08-07-2017 at 20:02:21 (D | E | F)
Hi everybody!
In an exercise on the use of “would” to talk about a time in the future from a point in the past, I found these sentences:
January: ‘The building work should be finished by the end of March.’
April: We thought that the building work would be finished / would have been finished by now.
I thought that “would have been finished” was not used to talk about a time in the future from a point in the past, but in conditionals. In other words, I would have considered this solution as wrong.
Can you please help me to understand if both possibilities are correct?
Thank you so much!
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Edited by lucile83 on 08-07-2017 21:05
Re: Use of would/future from mah, posted on 09-07-2017 at 04:10:46 (D | E)
Hi!
If the workers had worked hard, the building would have been finished .
This is a conditional you know. I want to say future in the past is right anyway. Should rarely is used instead of would ( only with I and We subjects). (would is more common in modern English)
If you had studied hard, you would have passed your exam.
Infact it's unreal and only an imagination , again future in the past. Passing the exam is something that was possible to happen in the past After studying hard. But didn't happen since studying hadn't happend before. I hope it can help.
Re: Use of would/future from dsmith, posted on 09-07-2017 at 05:25:29 (D | E)
Hello,
Would be finished by now...we thought that the building would be in a finished state before now. Imagine a building in a finished state.
would have been finished by now...we thought that sometime before now there would be a period during which the building was already finished. Imagine yourself yesterday knowing that the building had been finished before yesterday.
Here is an interesting example:
If the war started I would have died.
If the war started I would have been dead.
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Edited by lucile83 on 09-07-2017 07:24
Re: Use of would/future from traviskidd, posted on 09-07-2017 at 13:09:51 (D | E)
Hello,
"would" can be used as a past tense of "will", that is, to express something that is in the future relative to a point in the past.
Ex.: "Who could have imagined that after he became deaf, Beethoven would become one of music's greatest composers?"
"Would" is often used in reported speech:
Yesterday he said "I will come tomorrow." -> He said he would come today.
See you.
Re: Use of would/future from valoris, posted on 09-07-2017 at 17:28:50 (D | E)
Thank you for your help!
Re: Use of would/future from freeenglish, posted on 20-07-2017 at 20:45:28 (D | E)
Hello,
As an English person, either are fine / sound the same.
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Edited by lucile83 on 20-07-2017 21:52
Forum > English only
