[Grammar] Would - which she would do all her possible to prevent

[barnej0096]

Lea found the men's accent difficult to understand and for most of the time she didn't have a clue what they were talking about. One thing she did understand though, was that they were planning some sort of a bombing attack, which she would do all her possible to prevent. Why is it correct to say "would do"?

 

[bhaisahab]

Lea found the men's accent difficult to understand and for most of the time she didn't have a clue what they were talking about. One thing she did understand though, was that they were planning some sort of a bombing attack, which she would do all her possible to prevent. Why is it correct to say "would do"?

Why do you think it's incorrect?

 

[Rover_KE]

One thing she did understand though, was that they were planning some sort of a bombing attack, which she would do all she could to prevent.

Rover

 

[barnej0096]

It sounds unnatural, I'd say: "was going to do".

 

[bhaisahab]

It sounds unnatural, I'd say: "was going to do".

It doesn't sound unnatural at all.

 

[emsr2d2]

Lea found the men's accent difficult to understand and for most of the time she didn't have a clue what they were talking about. One thing she did understand though, was that they were planning some sort of a bombing attack, which she would do all her possible to prevent. Why is it correct to say "would do"?

Are you sure you quoted it correctly? "... which she would do all her possible to prevent" is unnatural and incorrect. It should be:

... which she would do everything she could to prevent.
... which she would do everything in her power to prevent.
... which she would do everything possible to prevent. (Note that this removes the specific statement that she will only try to do what she can personally do.)

 

[barnej0096]

Yes, it's written: "... which she would do all her possible to prevent." But if this sentence is in the past so shouldn't it be: "would have done"? I'm sorry but I still don't understand why I should use "would" :-(

 

[emsr2d2]

In this case, you can consider "would" to be "will" but in the past.

At the time she was listening to the men plotting the bomb attack, she was probably thinking "I will do everything possible to prevent that".

When changing that into reported speech/thought and moving the whole situation into the past, you say "When she listened to the men, she realised that they were plotting a bomb attack and she decided she would do everything possible to prevent that."