I'm sorry I'm breaking my promise. I swore not to ask about "would" any more as it might be quite irritating to you. But I encountered the following "would" that I coulnd't understand well.
Is it an opinion(euphemistic) or a conditional? If I regard it as a conditional, "a bottle full or diry water" can be an unlikely or counterfactual condition as 2nd conditional, but I as you explained to me, it seems a question for others' opinions. ***
Now I realized it's a polite request in conditional mood, definitely!!!(at the last minute)
Actually, I didn't fully understand when you corrected "
Won't you say "My son will recover from his cold?"" to "
Wouldn't you" as I thought careful, mild opinions come from speakers, and not for listeners.
Well, I'm disappointed to hear that. Where did you get your example sentence "Won't you say ..." from? You haven't seen any native speaker here using it.
So is it a polite, careful, euphemistic question for
listeners?
No!. It's suggestion or a question to the listener about: Wouldn't they express it in a certain way?
A: "Wouldn't you say X?"
B: "Yes, I would say X."
I heard 5jj said even native speakers don't know why they say some "would", but I think at least they may have some motive in mind to say that. I encounter hundreds of "would" all over, and after I came to know "opinion" usage of "would", I'm in a maze and the following link explains too many kinds.
Don't I have to care too much about the various kinds of "would" such as polite requests, wish, opinions, and presumptions that belong to conditionals?
No, you don't. You just have to understand what the sentences means.Would
ex)
Would you pay a dollar for
a bottle full of dirty water? What if it was labeled "maleria" or "cholera"? You could buy this unusual bottled water from a vending machine World Water Week in New York City. The water was sold as part of an effort to raise awareness in America about the lack of clean water in many areas of the world..... Most New Yorkers who passed by the vending machine were disgusted by the bottles of dirty water at first. But once they learned more about the serious problem, many of them donated money to help end it....They promised that each dollar would allow them to provide fresh, clean water to 40 children for one day...
