will/would

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1. If I were given a few wishes, I would wish for things that will be beneficial to society. It will be selfish and self-centred of me if I wish for things only for my personal benefit.

2. I wish that everyone would play a role in caring for the environment. If we continue to waste our precious resources and abuse our environment, it will be an uphill task to reverse the impending disaster.

a) Could somebody please confirm that 'would' should be used in all the words in bold? The writer, a non-native, sometimes uses 'will' and sometimes 'would'. I wonder he or she is correct in the choice of 'will'. I think 'would' should be used.

b) For paragraph 2, should 'would wish' be used instead of 'wish'.

c) Are there any other errors in the passage?

Thanks in advance.

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I think "will" should be replaced with "would" in the first two sentences marked 1)--because "would" is conditional, and the conditions are clearly referred to.

I see no problem with the fourth sentence, under the rubric 2), because it doesn't refer to a condition, it asserts that we are wasting resources and abusing our environment.

2 Replies

@Setanta,

Setanta, I appreciate your continuing assistance to help people learn correct English. You are so helpful to them.

BBB

0 Replies

Thank you, Aunt Bee . . .

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Now---can you help me to keep my brain memory speedy as it once was?

BBB

0 Replies

No hope, Darlin' . . . my memory is my blessing, and my curse . . . these days i can remember the 50s and 60s more easily than last week . . .

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Keep that great memory going---you will need it some day.

BBB

0 Replies

@tanguatlay,

Quote:

a) Could somebody please confirm that 'would' should be used in all the words in bold? The writer, a non-native, sometimes uses 'will' and sometimes 'would'. I wonder he or she is correct in the choice of 'will'. I think 'would' should be used.

1. If I were given a few wishes, I would wish for things that will be beneficial to society. It will be selfish and self-centred of me if I wished for things only for my personal benefit.

A 'will' is possible where I've underlined, Ms Tan. Imagine a speech being given and at that point the speaker is shaking their finger, emphasizing that something is going to happen, possibly admonishing others that they haven't.

'are' could/can also be used there.

It's a dramatic shift from the more unreal sense that 'wish' connotes. The normal and the neutral situation would see an irrealis sense throughout, using 'would'.

The italicized 'will' sounds odd because the situation is clearly in the realm of irrealis. Note the past tense form [ed] added onto 'wish'.

Quote:

2. I wish that everyone would play a role in caring for the environment. If we continue to waste our precious resources and abuse our environment, it will be an uphill task to reverse the impending disaster.

Here the sense shifts from the more unreal, denoted by 'wish' and 'would', at the "If", which we must note, points to a conditional to wit, "Upon the condition that we continue to waste our precious resources ..."

The speaker has chosen to put this in the realm of the real by using present tense "continue", so it is likely that most would/will choose 'will'. A 'would' is not out of the question at the underlined position.

Quote:

b) For paragraph 2, should 'would wish' be used instead of
'wish'.

Why do you think this should be, Ms Tan?

Quote:

c) Are there any other errors in the passage?

===================================

A: Wish for a pony.

B: No, if I wish for a pony, that will be selfish.

= If I make a wish for a pony, that will be selfish.

A: Wish for a pony.

B: No, if I wished for a pony, that would be selfish.

= If I made a wish for a pony, that would be selfish.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

I think "will" should be replaced with "would" in the first two sentences marked 1)--because "would" is conditional, and the conditions are clearly referred to.

The underlined is not the reason, or at least the sole reason for choosing a modal. As I've said before, no modal verb or lexical verb is conditional until it is incorporated in a CONDITIONAL. Then one has a conditional.

Say/Imagine/Pretend someone gives me a wish are three examples of conditionals without 'if'.

If someone gives me the choice, I ____ do the following: ... .

Here we also have a conditional. Must we put 'would' or 'could' in the blank? No, of course not. That's preposterous! That would/will prevent certain meanings/emotions/ideas from being expressed.

[Is will or would the better choice in this last sentence, underlined? ]

1 Reply

@JTT,

Quote:
b) For paragraph 2, should 'would wish' be used instead of
'wish'.

Why do you think this should be, Ms Tan?

I think it should be 'wished'.

1 Reply

@tanguatlay,

Quote:

I wish that everyone would play a role in caring for the environment.

Quote:

b) For paragraph 2, should 'would wish' be used instead of
'wish'.

Quote:

I think it should be 'wished'.

Could you explain why you think it should be 'wished'? Why did you ask about using 'would wish' instead of 'wish'?

1 Reply

@JTT,

I wish that everyone would play a role in caring for the environment.

I now think that it should be 'wished' because of 'would' in the same sentence.

1 Reply

@JTT,

I appreciate your help for language help, JTT.

BBB

1 Reply

@tanguatlay,

Quote:

I wish that everyone would play a role in caring for the environment.

I now think that it should be 'wished' because of 'would' in the same sentence.

If it's because you believe that "tenses" have to match, Ms Tan, you're simply going to have to get over that. It doesn't apply to English. There is no Sequence of Tenses in English. It was, like most prescriptions, a poorly thought out set of rules.

We choose according to the meaning we wish to express. Since modal verbs are tenseless, we can use them all, as long as the situation, bound by semantic
clarity, is preserved.

"wish" present tense, illustrates that that is what you now hope for expressed as a smaller degree of certainty, without as much hope that it will happen. It presents your usual condition, your present habitual condition, in the same manner that "I brush my teeth" means that brushing your teeth is a habit or routine for you.

Using 'wished' says that that feeling is finished.

"I would wish" points to a future time, something like,

A: What would you hope to see for the environment in the future?

B: I would wish that everyone would ... .

What this illustrates is that pragmatics, the situation, the context, plays an enormous role in language and therefore, meaning. Providing students with ironclad roles, "would is conditional, will is indicative" isn't very helpful to overall understanding.

We only have so many structures in language and they have to convey meaning for an infinite number of situations/contexts.

1 Reply

@BumbleBeeBoogie,

Thank you, BBB. That's mighty kind of you.

0 Replies

@JTT,

Quote:

What this illustrates is that pragmatics, the situation, the context, plays an enormous role in language and therefore, meaning. Providing students with ironclad roles, "would is conditional, will is indicative" isn't very helpful to overall understanding.

We only have so many structures in language and they have to convey meaning for an infinite number of situations/contexts.

Further to this. If we look in any dictionary, we find a number of meanings for each modal verb. To belabor the point, because it's vitally important for ESL/EFLs to grasp the uses of the modal verbs, telling them one role, even if it's the most common one for that modal is, again, misleading.

'will' is used to describe the future. That doesn't make it the future tense, nor does it make it always indicative. Those are names that have been given, inaccurate ones, to my mind.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Many thanks, Setanta and JTT.

0 Replies

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