[hdrao]

Originally Posted by riverkid

You are confused, Raveee because you've been misled. 'would' is not the past form of 'will', nor is 'will' the present tense form of 'would'.

In older forms of English, modal verbs had tense but in modern English they are tenseless. That's why 'will' and 'would' and all the other modals, eg can/could/may/might/shall/ should/etc. can be used in the past, present and future; because they have no tense.

Modals carry modal meaning into the sentence, tense is marked in other ways.

The bus will have already arrived. [past with 'will']





We can't use 'would' as a past tense for 'will' in past actions. There isn't a native speaker of English [ENL] who can produce such a sentence.



Yes, this is partly true; we use 'would' to describe past situations that were routine/often done, but when we use 'would' for these situations, it is not operating as the past tense of 'will'. There is no connection to 'will'.

Additionally,

1. Would can be used as a past form of will. This happens, for instance, in reported speech after a past ‘reporting’ verb.
“I’ll see you again tomorrow.”
He said he would see me again the next day.
Note that we have shall or should in direct speech, and would in reported speech.
“I should be delighted to come.”
He said he would be delighted to come.
2. Would is also used to express the idea of ‘future in the past’ (to talk about a past action which had not yet happened at the time we are talking about.
He published his first book at the age of twenty. Three years later, he would be a famous poet.
In Berlin, he first met the woman whom he would one day marry.
3. Another past use of would is to talk about past habits and characteristic behaviour.
On Sundays, when I was a child, we would get up early and go fishing.
He would never let anybody know what he was doing.
Sometimes she would bring me little presents, without saying why.
4. Past refusals can be expressed by using wouldn’t
He was angry because I wouldn’t lend him any money.

(Source: Michael Swan, Practical English Usage)