Expressing Wish or Desire: Would You Please?

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Vocabulary for
Today's Podcast

certainty

(to) work out

(to) carry a meaning

polite

(to) pop the question

a marriage proposal

(to) get hitched

polite

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Would You Please...?
Expressing Wish or Desire

Today is Tuesday, January 16, 2007, and thanks for stopping by the ESL Help Desk, your home page for questions and comments about English grammar and writing. First time listeners may want to browse our Library for audio stories and grammar lessons. Everybody is welcome to visit earlier podcasts and subscribe to our feed. So to all of our listening audience today, welcome to www.ESLHelpDesk.com!

Today we're going to discuss one way to express wish or desire by using the modal would. Many times people email me, writing, " I will like to purchase this" when they really should be saying "I would like to purchase this". We are going to talk about the correct use of the modal would in this situation.

WHAT IS A MODAL?

A modal is a helping verb. Using a modal before a verb changes the meaning of that verb in some way.

WHEN DO WE USE THE MODAL will?

Use the modal will when you are:

referring to the future and
you are indicating 100% CERTAINTY.

Time Reference	Positive	Negative

FUTURE:	will	will not, won't

Future Positive:	The marriage will work out.
Future Negative:	The marriage will not work out.
	(The marriage won't work out.)

PAST:	would have + past participle form of the verb	would not have + past participle form of the verb

*Past Positive:**	Their marriage would have worked* out.
Past Negative:	Their marriage would not have worked** out. (Their marriage wouldn't have worked out.)

* See also Chap. 12 of the Grammar HELP! Student Handbook, to learn about 3rd Conditional.)

WHEN DO WE USE THE MODAL would?

The modal would is very common, and carries several different meanings. In this example, we use would because it is a polite request, and we use the modal would with polite requests:

Would you please help me?

APPLYING THIS TO A NEW SITUATION

Now let's say you are ready to pop the question, that is, you are going to ask somebody to marry you. Do you say to the object of your desire, "I will like to marry you" or do you say, "I would like to marry you"?

Write your response you think is correct in the box below.

The winning marriage proposal would be, "I would like to marry you."

Perhaps you are more romantic and you get down on one knee: do you ask, " Will you marry me?" or do you ask, "Would you marry me?"

Which do you think is preferable?

Both statements could get you hitched, depending on how you want to sound. However, we think "Will you marry me?" sounds more certain on the requester's part. Remember that will indicates 100% certainty, and would indicates polite request. The next time you want to propose marriage, try them both and let us know which one works for you!

Thanks for listening to us this week, and remember to email us your questions about English grammar by sending us our comments or questions through our blog.

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