Speaker 1: Would you like to learn something interesting today? I knew
you would say yes. It would seem that you're pretty
interested in improving your English. Well, I would love to help.
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode seven forty six,
using woold that's right. Would. According to the dictionary, would
is the past of will, which is the future. But
talking about the future in the past is just one
part of today's podcast English Lesson, where we're going to
look at ten different ways we use wood in everyday English.
Let's get the ball rolling. First of all, we use
wood to make polite requests or offers. Would you like
some tea? Would you mind closing the door? Would you
like to join us for dinner? Speaking of being polite,
we use wood to give polite suggestions or advice. I
would recommend trying the chocolate cake. It's delicious. I would
suggest calling ahead to make a reservation. You would do
well to finish your homework before going out. Another polite
way that we use wood is to talk about our
preferences in situations like these. We use phrases like would
rather or would prefer. I would rather stay home tonight
than go out. I think Kim would prefer to eat
at a quiet restaurant. They would rather take the train
than drive. On the grammatical side, we use wood in
conditional sentences to talk about hypothetical and imaginary situations. If
I had a million dollars, I would buy a new house.
She would travel the world. If she didn't have to work.
If I saw an alien in my bathtub, I would
run away. Speaking of conditionals, we use wood have in
the third conditional to talk about hypothetical and imaginary situations
in the past that didn't happen. If I had known
about the party, I would have gone. She would have
been here on time, if she hadn't missed the bus.
They would have succeeded if they had tried harder. Next up,
we use wood with wish to express a wish or desire,
especially in phrases like I wish you would, or I
wish she would and so on. I wish you would
listen to me. She wishes he would call her more often.
I wish you would stop raining. We use wood to
talk about repeated actions or habits in the past, similar
to the phrase used to when I was a child,
I would visit my grandparents every summer. When she was
a kid, Jenny's dad would read her a story every
night before bed. Every morning, my grandmother would walk to
the bakery to get fresh bread Batting No. Number eight
for today. We use wood to show that someone is
willing to do something. I would be happy to help
you move that desk. She said she would lend me
her car if I needed it. They said they would
gladly volunteer for the beach cleanup on Saturday next. We
use wood to express doubt or uncertainty. I would imagine
she's very busy right now. It would seem they're not
coming at all. You would think they'd let us know
about any changes in the policy. Are you still with me?
I would hope so. Because finally, we use wood to
talk about the future in the past. Imagine this situation.
Early this morning, you ran into your friend Jenny at
the coffee shop. Jenny said, I can't really talk now
because I'm late for work. I'll call you tonight. Jenny
promised to call you later. Now it's eight pm on
the same day. You haven't heard from Jenny yet, but
you expect that she will call you. You expect her
to call because she said I will call you tonight.
You can talk about what she said this morning using
wood like this. Jenny said that she would call me tonight.
Here's another example. You love the classic movie Casablanca, and
several weeks ago you recommended that movie to a friend
of yours. Your friend texted you to say that he
loved the movie. You can say, I knew you would
love the movie. Just remember when you use wood to
talk about the future in the past, all of the
verbs are in the past. Jenny said that she would
call me tonight. I knew you would love the movie.
Keep in mind, the best way to remember this and
any other word or phrase in English is to take
that word or phrase, write it in a sentence that's
true for you or true in your world, and then
memorize your sentences. For today's podcast English Lesson, You're gonna
need to write ten of those sentences. Hey, did you
know that you can get the chance to practice this
kind of English with me directly? Yeah? You can get
more practice using your English when you join my podcast
Learner's study group. There you can make new friends, join
us for live group lessons every week where we practice
these podcast lessons together. Plus you get access to the pdf,
transcript and audio download for every Happy English podcast in
the past and in the future. And on top of that,
each episode has exercises where you can practice this English
point with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more,
just visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson
seven forty six. Remember, learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
on your journey.
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Happy English.