PAST MODALS / WILL-WOULD, CAN-COULD, MAY- MIGHT

What would you do if you had time?

I shall make it / I should make it but it is too late. (obligation)

What will you do if you have money? / What would you do if you had money? (intention)

I hope this will work. / I hope this would work. (judgment)

I can’t do now. / I could do it tomorrow. (ability)

He can park his car here. / He could park there if we let him. (permission)

Something can happen here. / Something could happen here. (possibility)

She may eat now. / She might eat. (permission)

She may be here. / She might be here. (possibility)

He shall see us. / I knew that he should see us. (obligation)

She will go out tonight. / She would go out in those days. (intention)

He knew she would make it wrong. (judgment)

Beni can speak English. / He could speak English when he was 10, too. (ability)

There can be another answer. / There could be another answer. (possibility in the past)

She may go now. / She said she might go now. (possibility in the past)

I might have gone to the cinema at the weekend. (unreal)

He could have been here.

She must have eaten too much spaghetti. (deduction)

You should have told me.

If I had been there, I would have helped her.

Used to, would:

a. I used to live in Istanbul, and I would go around the Bosphorus, and I would go back to Izmir whenever I could.

b. I used to go to school in Istanbul. I would work 3 hours a day.

Reading:

My father came to America from Poland. He used to live in Poland until he was 15. He settled in a small town in Poland. When he moved to the USA, he would never speak English. He didn’t use to learn English at school because he always used to work to help his family’s expenses. After a while, he went to an English course, and then he could understand a bit. But anyway, he used to make a lot of mistakes for some time. Now, he is a fluent English speaker.

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