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Nothing... "would" has more than one use. Certainly it does, but in reading the quote at the start of this thread, I didn't see why "would" was considered conditional by one of the respondents. I still believe it does not create a conditional mood in that particular construction.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
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well yeah, that was, in fact, my original question. is there a term for this "mood" or style?
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Is would used as a replacement for used to? - In my opinion, you are closest to the "truth". So what is the grammatical term for the formulation with "used to"? Habitual tense? - Yet it is still not a 1:1 replacement. In a narrative, you can write "would" repeatedly, while "used to" sounds clumsy if repeated. In Tsuwm's example it seems overdone and possibly wrong: was the course of the game really identical on several occasions?
Last edited by wsieber; 03/14/10 02:29 PM.
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Sorry about that, folks. I was tired and a bit in a hurry when I posted without really looking at the sample sentence all that hard. It is not the conditional mood at all, as you have all pointed out. Just wish I'd caught it sooner.
Well, the voice of the example is passive. As others have suggested it seems to be a kind of historical future. A future tense expressed within the context of the past. The mood is just plain indicative as there is nothing in doubt about the event (the definition) occurring.
Again sorry for the noise caused by my earlier confusion.
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Strange. I wanted to see more context so I googled up the article the sentence fragment occurred in ( link). The paragraph which is opened by the example sentence reads just a little bit strange to me, perhaps because would is often used in conditional sentences. If you rewrite the paragraph: The second half of the game would be defined by offensive runs from both teams and tough, physical play. In the third quarter, the Lakers, making their push to try and win this game early, would eventually extend their lead to 15, but Phoenix would show their determination to not go quietly and went on their own run. The Suns took advantage of some sloppy Lakers play and raced the floor for easy baskets. By the time the third quarter was over, Phoenix would cut the Lakers lead to four and I think all Lakers fans were prepared for another close game that could come down to the final possession. And while this game wouldn’t be that close, there were moments of anxiety as the Suns kept it close and battled the Lakers hard by contesting shots in the paint and, though overmatched physically, not giving an inch.
The second half of the game was defined by offensive runs from both teams and tough, physical play. In the third quarter, the Lakers, having made their push to try and win this game early, eventually extended their lead to 15, but Phoenix showed their determination to not go quietly and went on their own run. The Suns took advantage of some sloppy Lakers play and raced the floor for easy baskets. By the time the third quarter was over, Phoenix cut the Lakers lead to four, and I think all Lakers fans were prepared for another close game that would come down to the final possession. And while this game wasn't that close, there were moments of anxiety as the Suns kept it close and battled the Lakers hard by contesting shots in the paint and, though overmatched physically, not giving an inch. I don't think anything was lost by rewriting all these woulds into simple past tenses and making the one odd could into a would.
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wiki[conditional mood] would turn out to be extremely unhelpful, "Conditional verb forms can also have temporal uses, often for expressing "future in the past" tense."
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"Conditional verb forms can also have temporal uses, often for expressing "future in the past" tense."Well, thanks. You learn something new everyday. I had never heard of the future in the past, but it does occur ( link). I wonder when the term was coined?
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@ zjm changing the woulds - I think a sports buff would say you do not get the feeling of live action it is too much a reportage over and done with.
Last edited by Avy; 03/14/10 03:17 PM.
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my reason for stating that wiki was "unhelpful" with this statement is that the statement stands on its own and is not really related to the "conditional" aspect!
I guess that this "style" was just contrived by someone who was bored with the indicative mood.
Last edited by tsuwm; 03/14/10 03:17 PM.
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I found an explanation online (the link may not work outside of the States). Relative tenses represent deictic tenses in relation to other deictic tenses. (In McCawley 1971: 91, and Hornstein 1981: 120, the relation in question is syntactic subordination: in what McCoard (1978) calls the "embedded past" theory of the perfect, the present perfect derives from a past tense embedded under a present tense.) Thus had sung is the past-in-the-past, has sung the past-in-the-present, and will have sung the past-in-the-future. Similarly would sing is the future-in-the-past, is (about) to sing the future-in-the-present, and will be (about) to sing the future-in-the-future. Coincident (relatively present) tenses are ignored by many contemporary theorists, though Lo Cascio (1982: 42) writes of the imperfect, which is considered in traditional grammar a present-in-the-past, as a past coincident tense. ( link)
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