Would

Hi again, 

Thanks to Aline and Alejandro, we could learn the different uses of would: 

–Conditional sentences (2nd and 3rd type)

  If I won the lottery, I would invest my money in a house.

  If I had won the lottery, I would have invested my money in a house.

-Polite requests, invitations or suggestions 

   Would you mind opening the door? 

   Would you like to go to the cinema?

   I would like the fish, please.

–Advice  (2nd conditional)

   If I were in your shoes/If I were you, I would go for it. 

–Advice (would + recommend/suggest/consider, etc.)

 I would recommend choosing this option. 

 Attention: Be careful with the patterns these verbs (consider/recommend/suggest, etc.) follow. Please look up a good dictionary.

–Past of will  ( It tends to follow verbs such as knew, thought, said, promised, threatened, etc.)

  He said that he would go on a cruise.

 Attention: this use is related to reported speech. 

–Willingness in the past  (When speaking about the past, we can use would to express that someone was generally willing to do things)

  Tom was a really kind person; he’d (he would) always  help anyone in any situation.  

  Attention: We don’t use would to speak about single occasions in the past:

 He agreed to help me. (not *He would help me)

-Unwillingness in the past 

We can use would not / wouldn’t to express an unwillingness to do something (both generally and on single occasions and on the part of people, animals or machines):

  My dad always helped with the cooking, but he wouldn’t wash the dishes.
  I was late for work today because my car wouldn’t start.

–Being cautious when giving opinions, predicting or speculating

 I would imagine the job will take about two days.

 I’d say he was about fifty.

Attention: Be careful with this use! As I said to you in class, study in depth the different structures and pay attention to the place where «would» could appear. 

–Future in the past 

Future in the past is used to express the idea that in the past you thought something would happen in the future. It does not matter if you are correct or not. Future in the past follows the same basic rules as the simple future.  «Would» is used to volunteer or promise, and «was going to» is used to plan. Moreover, both forms can be used to make predictions about the future.

• Voluntary action: I knew Eric would make dinner tonight.
• Promise: She promised that she would come to my party.
• Prediction: I thought it would be a disaster. (or I thought it was going to be a disaster).
• Plan: David said that he was going to bring his camera with him, but he forgot.

–Would (= used to) 

It is this use which causes difficulties as it is not always easy to understand the difference between would and used to clearly. What I can say about it is the following: 

Would and used to are interchangeable when talking about past repeated actions. But at the same time, they also differ as used to can also be used for situations which continued for a period of time in the past but they were not repeated. It is here where we can´t replace used to with would.

 He used to smoke (not He would smoke) 

He used to smoke a cigarette after every meal (or He would smoke a cigarette after every meal) 

Besides, we can´t use would to replace used to when talking about:

Past states

State here makes reference to an extended state or situation, that is, a permanent state or situation that continued for a period of time in the past.

        She used to work as a pharmacist.

Past Location

       Mary used to live in New York.

Past Ownership/Possession  

       Peter used to have a dog.

Here again, the key is repetition. Let´s focus on the second example, Mary used to live in New York. Can´t we use would instead of used to here? No, we can´t, as living in New York wasn´t repeated again and again and again. It is simply a situation in the past. The same happens with the first example.

As for the past time reference with «would» , it would be convenient to use it to avoid confusion with other uses of would. It can be at the beginning or at the end of the sentence, not necessarily at the beginning as some English teachers say on some websites.                       

Apart from that, you should know that we often use would to replace used to after a past narrative tense has started with used to:

   Dad used to travel a lot on business. He would be away for weeks at a time, and he´d always bring presents back with him.

This use of would is related to the fact that English speakers like to use would when there are a lot of things included in our past habits, just as a way to avoid using used to all the time.  

Let me include something else related to would. We can use would/wouldn´t to criticize or talk about annoying habits by others in the past. In this case, in speech, we must stress would/wouldn´t.

    My boss was awful. He would find something for me to do at 5 o’clock.

Remember that used to is better than would with stative verbs, although would is sometimes possible.

   He would always be the first one to give a hand (taken from Oxford Learner´s Dictionary)

Note 1: I deduce that the presence of a frequency adverb makes the use of would possible with some stative verbs.

Note 2: The position of a frequency adverb with would is different from its position with used to. In addition, according to some grammarians, never + used to is more common in speaking than didn´t use to.

         Mike would always give her a lift to work…

         Mike always used to give her a lift to work…

         Mike never used to give her a lift to work…

If in doubt, use “used to”, which is always correct.  The use of “would” is more restrictive and it can be more frequently used when speakers feel nostalgia about past habits.

Here you have a video summarising the most important uses of would. Do not worry if you cannot see all the uses previously mentioned. 

 I hope this information helps and doesn´t muddy the waters

 Links for practice:

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/used-to-exercise-2.html 

https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/used-would-always

https://www.examenglish.com/grammar/used_to_would.htm

https://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-26509.php

http://www.perfectyourenglish.com/grammarworksheets/would-used-to.htm

https://www.grammarbank.com/used-to-vs-would-worksheet.html