The modal WOULD to express unreal situations
Present and future
Would + infinitive can refer to unreal situations in the present or future. An unreal situation is one which is not true in the present or one which may or may not happen in the future:
It
would be
nice to live by the sea.
(I don't live by the sea)
It
would be
great to go hiking in the Appalachians again.
(I may or may not go)
Would is often used in the main clause of a sentence in the second conditional:
I
wouldn't do
that if I were you.
(I am not you)
I
would help
you if you asked me to.
(you may or may not ask me)
Past
Would + perfect infinitive refers to unreal situations in the past. We imagine a hypothetical past situation which did not happen. We often use an if-clause to describe the situation:
It
would have been
wonderful to meet you in person.
I
would have helped
you if you had asked me to.
(you didn't ask me)
Quotes:
What would I do if I had only six months left to live? I'd type faster. - Isaac Asimov
If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all. - Joey Adams
If people behaved like governments, you'd call the cops. - Kelvin Throop
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears. - Native American proverb
How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? - Satchel Paige
We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible. - Vince Lombardi
Related topics:
Second conditional
Third conditional