WOULD - The 10 Uses - English Grammar Lesson (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

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- Hello, lovely students,

and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today, we're going to talk about a really annoying word,

a word that troubles so many of my students,

"would".

Ugh, isn't it annoying?

It's got so many uses.

Well, don't you worry,

because today we are going to be going through

the 10 uses of "would".

We are going to go through, in immense detail,

with lots of examples,

and there will be lots of exercises in the PDF.

You will leave this lesson

feeling more confident about the ways you can use "would".

I'd like to remind you that, as always,

I have created a free PDF that goes with this lesson.

It will show you everything we're going to talk about today,

in a nice, clear layout,

and it has lots of exercises,

so you can put what you learned today

into practise later on.

If you would like to download this free PDF,

just click on the link in the description box.

You enter your name and your email address.

You sign up to my mailing list,

and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox.

Every week after that,

you will automatically receive my free lesson PDFs,

along with all my news, offers, and course updates.

It's a free service, and you can unsubscribe at anytime.

Right, let's get started with the lesson,

and firstly, I want to do just a little focus

on the pronunciation.

Speakers of certain languages

really struggle with that "wo" sound.

They almost say, "gho",

you want to make your lips nice and round, like this.

Almost as if you're going to kiss,

but with a little hole. (chuckles)

It's like, you're saying, "Ooh", but it's even smaller.

"oo".

And then go straight into "ud",

"oo-ud", "wud", "wood", "would"

I'm sure that some of you didn't need that,

but I'm sure that some of you did, actually.

Let's start with the first use of would.

We use "would" to make polite requests.

This is one of the most common phrases using "would",

when we want to ask for something politely,

we say, "I would like", or "I'd like".

"I'd like a cup of tea, please."

Or "I'd like the scones with jam."

There's a big fight in the UK

about how to pronounce "scone".

Some say "scone", some say "scon",

scone like cone, scon like gone.

I've always said, "scon".

If you are a British or a fan of British culture,

which do you say? "Scon" or "scone", let me know.

We can also use "would like"

to request things for other people to.

"My husband would like a hot chocolate,

and the New York Times."

That is what he likes.

The first time we ever went to a posh hotel together,

very early in our relationship,

they said, "What would you like in the morning?

Which newspaper and hot drink."

And he just panicked and said "A hot chocolate

and the New York Times." (laughs)

The structure of this is "Subject + would like + object"

or "Subject + would like + to infinitive".

We can also use "would" to make requests as a question.

"Would you close the curtains, please?"

Or "Would you buy me a newspaper?"

Preferably the New York Times,

with a hot chocolate.

Number two, we can use "would"

to make invitations and offers.

For example,

if you want to politely offer someone some food or a drink,

you can say, "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Would you like a biscuit with that?"

If you want to invite somebody to an event or a place,

you can say,

"Would you like to come to our house tomorrow for dinner?"

Or "Would you like to come with me to the party tonight?"

We can also use "would" in reported speech.

I've made a video recently on reported speech.

I'll leave it down there in the description box.

It's very concise.

I'm sure it will help you,

if you want to look in more detail,

but just as a brief overview,

we can use "would" in reported speech.

In reported speech,

"would" is the past of "will".

In direct speech,

"I will help you move house." said Robert.

Transforming that into reported speech,

"Robert said that he would help me move house."

"Will" changes to "would".

Whenever you see "will" in direct speech,

you can use "would" in reported speech.

Some more examples.

"She said she would come."

"They told me they would finish it by the next day."

"I said I would drive them to the airport."

Number four.

Now this one is really important,

because often students don't know about this,

but we use it a lot in speeches, natives.

My husband, Will, uses this all the time,

and it really annoyed me once,

because we filmed a video for this channel,

and he used "would" all the time, in this way,

and I think it really confused some of the viewers.

So I'm really happy to be talking about it today.

We use "would" to talk about typical behaviour in the past.

If you didn't know this before,

this is going to make you think,

oh, I understand why they said "would" all the time now.

We use "would" to talk about repeated actions in the past.

Habits that we don't do anymore.

"When I was a child,

we would go to France for our holidays."

That was a repeated action, typical behaviour,

but I'm not a child anymore.

I don't go to France anymore for my holidays.

"When Julian was at university,

he would eat ready meals almost every night."

He doesn't do this anymore. He's not a student,

but when he was a student, this is what he "would" do.

Note that you can't use this to talk about state verbs,

like "love", "hate", "want" or "have".

For states, we use the structure "used to" instead.

We don't say, "When I was a child, I would love chocolate."

We do say, "When I was a child, I used to love chocolate."

Because "love" is a state verb,

so it doesn't go with "would".

"When I was a child, I used to love chocolate,

but now I don't like it."

What a lie. What a lie.

Number five.

We use "would" to talk about willingness in the past.

If you want to talk about how willing or happy someone was

to do something in the past, you can use "would".

Although we normally use this in a negative way,

so it's more likely that we use "wouldn't".

"The shop wouldn't give me a refund,

even though my new phone is obviously broken."

They weren't willing to,

or "Dave wouldn't carry any of my boxes for me."

He wasn't willing to.

"My parents wouldn't lend me any money,

so I couldn't go out."

Number six,

we also use "would" in hypothetical situations.

This is another really key one.

Hypothetical situations are situations

that we are imagining.

They're not real.

"The restaurant would be too expensive,

so we won't go there." (chuckles) Basically.

"I would like to live in Spain,

because the weather's beautiful."

But I live in England. So I can't.

"I would get seasick with those huge waves,

so I'm not going on the boat trip."

or "It would be great to travel more often."

Number seven,

we use "would" in conditional sentences.

I have a full video on the conditionals.

We go into more detail in that video.

I've left a link for you in the description box,

but just as an overview, I'll go over it now,

relating to "would".

We use "would" in the second conditional

to talk about imaginary, impossible,

or very unlikely situations in the present.

These are similar to the hypothetical situations

that we spoke about just before,

but with the second conditional, we use two clauses,

the "If clause" and the "Would clause".

"If I moved to another country, I would miss my parents."

"Claire would take a trip around the world

if she won the lottery."

Take a look at the structure of these sentences,

but pay attention. Okay?

The structure is "If + subject + past simple comma

subject + would + the base form of the verb."

However, that's why I said pay attention.

That little comma, just there,

is only needed if the, "If clause" comes first,

you can swap the clauses over,

and in that case, the comma isn't needed.

I know it seems like such a tiny thing,

but if you're in an exam, it's really important.

Please also remember, even though we're using past tenses,

we are imagining things in the present.

Some more examples.

"If my children ate all their vegetables,

they would get ice cream."

We're using a comma there,

because the "If clause" comes first.

"I would take Spanish classes if I had time."

The "If clause" comes second, so there's no comma.

"We'd get a Labrador if we were allowed to get a dog."

I said "We'd", the contraction. "We would", "We'd".

"If they spoke English, they would move to New Zealand."

Next up we have the third conditional,

and this is the conditional that we use to talk about

hypothetical situations in the past.

We often use this structure to imagine changing the past,

or imagining things happening differently.

"I would have called you if I had known you were at home."

or "If she had helped us, we would have finished earlier."

Let's look at the structure quickly.

The whole comma situation is very similar.

"If + subject + past perfect comma

subject + would have + past participle."

If the "If clause" comes first,

we need a comma, if it comes second, we do not.

Let's take a look at some examples.

"If he'd practised more,

he would have passed his driving test."

"She wouldn't have missed her flight

if her alarm had gone off."

"If you'd bought a ticket,

you wouldn't have got a fine."

I said, "You'd", "You had".

Moving on to number eight.

We can use "would" with "wish".

We use "would" with "wish"

to talk about things that we want people to do or not to do.

We often use it when we're annoyed by someone's habit

or something they do regularly.

"I wish you wouldn't leave the door unlocked."

"He wishes his dad wouldn't smoke."

The structure is as follows,

"Subject + wish + subject + would

+ the base form of the verb.

"I wish you'd clean the house more often."

"I wish you wouldn't borrow my clothes."

"They wish their neighbor's dog wouldn't bark at night."

"We wish our grandparents would move closer to us."

Number nine, we use "would" to talk about preferences.

If we want to talk about what we

or what somebody else prefers from several options,

we use the phrase "would rather".

This could be a real situation in the present,

or a hypothetical situation.

"I'd rather get a takeaway today, I'm too tired to cook."

or "Would you rather go to the cinema or to the theatre?"

The structure is,

"Subject + would rather + the base form of the verb."

Some more examples,

"Would you rather have tea or coffee?"

or "They'd rather not come tonight

because they're not feeling well."

or "Tina would rather meet us at the restaurant."

Finally, number 10,

we use "would" to give opinions.

When we want to give our opinion about something,

but we're not sure we're correct

or we want to be really polite,

we can use "would" as part of some set phrases.

We often say,

"I would think",

"I would imagine",

or "I would guess".

"I'd imagine it's been a tough few days for him."

"I'd guess he'd want to help."

"I'd think we'd need to talk to the manager

before we commit to this."

Right. That is it.

The 10 uses for "would".

Now it is time to test your understanding,

by taking the quiz in the PDF.

If you'd like to download that PDF,

the link is in the description box.

You enter your name and your email address.

You sign up to my mailing list,

and the PDF comes directly to your inbox,

and then you're automatically signed up to my mailing list.

You get all of my free PDFs each week,

plus all of my news, offers and course updates.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.

I've got my Instagram,

I've got my website, englishwithlucy.co.uk.

I've got a pronunciation tool there.

Lots of lessons are there too.

If you would like to improve

your listening and vocabulary skills,

then I also have my vlogging channel,

where we document our life here in the English countryside,

and every single vlog is fully subtitled,

so you can use them for listening practise,

and to acquire more vocabulary.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

Mwah. (kiss smacks)

Let's look at the structure quickly.

The whole... (production cut beeps)

She wouldn't have missed her flight, if her, ah (laughs)

This tiny, tiny lipstick.

(production cut beeps) Plus subject, plus past...

(production cut beeps) The stroke.

The structure is, if plus subject plus...

(production cut beeps)

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