Would
Can / Could / Dare / Have to / May / Might / Must / Need (to) / Ought to / Shall / Should / Use(d) to / Will / Would
Review Modal verbs by function here
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Polite requests
Habitual actions in the past
Future past
Past of "Will"/Reported speech
Conditional structures
Function
Polite requests
Would is used to make requests. It is more polite than using will
Would you be able to collect my parents from the airport?
Habitual actions in the past
Would is used to talk about actions that were habitual:
We would always go to Church on a Sunday when I was young
Future Past
We sometimes use woudl to talk about the fruture from the point of view of the past. This is when the speaker looks forward to the future from a moemnt in the past.
When I broke my leg, I thought I would never play football again.
Past of "will" and reported speech
When we report speech, will is converted into would:
"Will you come to my party?" Amy asked the boys
Amy asked if the boys woudl come to her party
Conditional structures
We use would in type II conditional structures to talk about hypothetical actions.