hii,

I am learning English for around 5 years and I still can’t comprehend the meaning of “would” and “count” in some context. are they just past form of “will” and “can”?

“would you like coffee” means a person is asking if you liked coffee in past? “I would do it” means I did it in past?

I really don’t understand since my language doesn’t have anything like those words.

Edit: Thank you for answering my naive question :)

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
    101·
    5 months ago

    Consider the difference between “would do” and “could do” to be the same as “will do” and “can do”, respectively.

    One implies action, the other implies capability.

    There’s also “should”, which implies permission.

    Consider, also, the progress of learning Python (programming language):

    1. Could I do this in Python?
    2. I would do this in Python.
    3. I shouldn’t do this in Python.

    Edit to add: Would, could, and should are usually considered future-tense. But add “have” and it’s past-tense…“I would have done that”