"I would say.....", "I would do that"

[trueheart_205]

I often see that you use "I would say.....", "I would do that". What do they mean? Why don't we use "will" instead? What is the difference between "would" and "will"?
Thanks.

 

[bhaisahab]

I often see that you use "I would say.....", "I would do that". What do they mean? Why don't we use "will" instead? What is the difference between "would" and "will"?
Thanks.

In those examples "would" is conditional. "If I were asked, I would say..." "If I were to do something, I would do that".

 

[Raymott]

I often see that you use "I would say.....", "I would do that". What do they mean? Why don't we use "will" instead? What is the difference between "would" and "will"?
Thanks.

Hi trueheart, this was thrashed to death and beyond a few times earlier in the year, revived, and thrashed again. But unfortunately the good answers given then can't be retrieved because "would" can't be searched for. This is a real pity. It's a waste of the exhaustive (and exhausting) replies given back then.
I would encourage you though to do a search for poster 'keannu' between Feb - March, 2012 and manually look through the threads for "would" in the title. You will get some useful hits.

 

[birdeen's call]

Hi trueheart, this was thrashed to death and beyond a few times earlier in the year, revived, and thrashed again. But unfortunately the good answers given then can't be retrieved because "would" can't be searched for. This is a real pity. It's a waste of the exhaustive (and exhausting) replies given back then.
I would encourage you though to do a search for poster 'keannu' between Feb - March, 2012 and manually look through the threads for "would" in the title. You will get some useful hits.

"Would" can be searched for by using this trick: www.google.com/search?q=site:usingenglish.com+"would"

 

[Raymott]

"Would" can be searched for by using this trick: www.google.com/search?q=site:usingenglish.com+"would"

Thank you very much BC. Wonderful! :-D

 

[birdeen's call]

Thank you very much BC. Wonderful! :-D

You're welcome.

 

[david11]

and beyond a few times earlier in the year, revived, and thrashed again. .

Does the sentence in red mean more than few times? If yes, then can we use many times or quite number of times to mean that?

 

[Raymott]

Does the sentence in red mean more than few times? If yes, then can we use many times or quite number of times to mean that?

No. The phrases are "to death and beyond" and "a few times".
"to death and beyond" - Not only did we thrash it to death, we thrashed it beyond death. This is often referred to as "thrashing a dead horse". It means doing something beyond the point where it still useful to do it.

 

[Rover_KE]

"Would" can be searched for by using this trick: www.google.com/search?q=site:usingenglish.com+"would"

You can also search for previous threads like this:

Go to the very top of the page and click on Search ​next to 'Google Custom Search'.

When 'Google Custom Search' appears again, type would in the long empty box and then Search again.​

(Before the forum was 'improved' we only needed one step to do this rather than two.)

​

Rover​

​

 

[Tdol]

(Before the forum was 'improved' we only needed one step to do this rather than two.)​

​

I have asked the webmaster to look into that.

 

[Tdol]

It's fixed now.