What is the difference between will and would?
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There are many meanings, to both of these words. It would help to know in what context do you mean? But some general rules…
_Will_ can only be future tense. It also has a lot more conviction than “would”. Since you can not apply the word “will” to the past, you’d likely use it like, “I will do the thing.” Only future tense, and has more certainty.
_Would_ can work for both past and future tenses. For instance, “I would do that tomorrow if…” which speaks to the future, or “I would have done that yesterday if…” In both past and future scenarios, “would” is generally a better word when you have some qualifiers, like “if”, or hypothetical situations.
There are some caveats though. A common use of both words is similar when a person requests something, such as, “Will you please…” or “Would you please…” In this example, both are correct. I personally prefer “would” when requesting something from a person. It sounds more formal.
Will is used to speak about a decision made at the time of speaking. For example, we are walking to the pub and I’ll say, “Oh, I need some cash, I will go to the ATM and meet you in the pub.”
Would is used to speak about past habits. I would play football when I was a child. More usually, ‘used to’ is used to speak about past habits, especially in spoken English.
You can not use would to speak about past habits with state verbs.
Of the top of my head, its active vs passive, and the tense can also be different by using one or the other, but they can also mean the same thing tense wise.
* Would you do x for me?
* Will you do x for me?
* He would have done x.
* He will do x.
* I would do x if I could.
* I will do x.
Would is the conditional form of will. It applies to hypothetical situations: if I were to answer this question correctly, you would give an upvote.
I can’t say “you will give an upvote”, because that depends on whether I answer correctly or not. Hence this is a conditional clause.
Depends on context. Will typically means you’re going to do something and would means you’re open to the idea of doing something.
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