could you please explain me this question:
After he died,it was a language I never heard again-that is,until I heard myself struggling with the words
he [would use] so easily all those years ago.
A.NO CHANGE
B.would
C.would of used
D.had used
I said A.But I se no reason not to choose D either.Answer key says it is D.Could you please explain.thanks
A & B are automatically out because they are in future tense while the sentence is pretty much in past tense (ex. Died, years ago = past tense).
As for C & D, I looked up the difference between “Would of” and “Had” and it said that it would be grammatically proper to have an I guess you would call “Before” clause. Don’t count my reasoning behind this. This is what I gathered after searching around for a couple of minutes.
The thing is, would of in itself is not grammatically correct. The phrase is would have, but because of our contorted speech, some people say would of. This eliminates C. A and B are future tense as mentioned above. That’s why the answer is D.
Indeed^. Words like would, should, and could should all follow the word “have.” This makes answer choice D by far the best.
but guys ,
would + v1 can also be used for the past when the action is repeated several times
for example:
My grandpa would tell me stories about monsters. (in here would tell=used to tell)
Please check here for further explanation:
http://www.englishpage.com/modals/would.html
what I am trying to say is this:
1)Yes you can use would + v1 as the past of “will”:
She said she would be there at night.
2)But you can also use would + v1 for the actions which were repeated in the past:
When he was young, he would always do his homework.
3)Yes obviously the answer is D correct.But so is the answer A.And if you ask me since the emphasis in this sentence is on the repetition of the act ( he used the words throughout his life time not just once) answer A sounds better.Because D sounds like as if he used these words only for one occasion.
sorry i forgot to mention you @Frigidcold
First, I’ll start off by saying that just as you think A sounds correct, I would have chosen D because it sounds correct to me. But, I have attempted to rationalize it because that website on would usage made me very skeptical of how much grammar I actually know.
The only conclusion I could come up with is that “would use” is a past unreal conditional phrase (http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/pastconditional.html and scroll down). That is, the use of “would use” doesn’t definitively say that he used the words, only that he would have used the words if presented the chance.
hi again,
To would use to be “past unreal conditional” it has to be used with if.
for instance:
If I were president, I would cut the cost of education (in this case we understand that he is not actually president but just imagines this hypothetical situation.)
But since in our stiuation there is no “if” it is clearly not conditional.
By the way I showed the question to an English teacher and he told me that both answers were correct.So now I am wondering how it could be possible since this was a official ACT question
He had used those words in all those years before he died.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/past-tense/past-perfect
yes that is right
past perfect can be used here.but we can also use would v1 ?
@coolweather
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-modal-would.htm
According to the above link, “would” is used to talk about habitual behavior in the past. So I think “would use” could be correct. But the sentence in your question belongs to a longer passage. The context of that passage may tell more about which answer is the best one. Also the author mentioned “it was a language”, not the habit. So I think “had used” is more correct.
^ My post #11 is not clear. “had used” is more correct because it indicates some event happened before “After he died”, “until I heard myself struggling”.
thanks i think you are right.The ACT probably tested here whether we can understand the fact that grandpa used these word before he died.But still the rest of the paragraph seems to support the use of “would use” here.Let me right the sentences that precede this one:
I remember the way way he used to read to me when I was very young.He would point to the pictures in my storybooks,giving things their Miami names.I remembered him pointing to a tree a cloud ,a dog…
what do you think about the presence of “used to” and “would point” just before our sentence?
“would point” is used in an independent sentence here. It describes a habit in the past. This sentence does not give the notion of the time order of the actions. The other sentence is a complex sentence and it does indicate the time order of the actions (hence past perfect is needed).