I am learning German in DuoLingo, German for English speakers. During the exercises you translate in both directions, from German to English and from English to German. Sometimes an answer you give in English is not allowed by the system. So you are not just learning German, you are looking at the construction of English sentences, and common usage, which may be incorrect.
For example, will and shall. The German speakers may question the answers given in English. This is common when another language does not have exactly the same tenses as English.
Problems
Will or Shall?
Would or Should?
Will or Would or Would Have?
Answers
Here's one answer I gave on a forum on a particular answer.
'I will read more tomorrow' (merely implies action to be done).
'I will have read more tomorrow' (implies action already done tomorrow.
(For example:' I have done a little today; but I will have done it all tomorrow.' Or, 'by tomorrow night I shall have read more than today').
Would is conditional. I would if I could.
'I would have read more tomorrow' implies intention thwarted.
For example:
'I would have read more tomorrow - if you had let me!'
Action is what you were intending to do but not cannot.
For example: 'I would have read more tomorrow if you had not taken away my books!'; 'Teacher, why are you giving me a black mark for not finishing it today - when I would have read more tomorrow!'
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and public speaker, English language teacher and tutor.
