Would

Would is originally the past tense of will, and it (or its contracted form 'd) is still used in that sense: "In the 1960s, people thought we would all be driving hovercars by the year 2000."

Its more common use, however, is to convey the conditional mood, especially in counterfactual conditionals; that is, to express what would be the case if something were different: "If they wanted to do it, they would have done it by now." There is not always an explicit protasis ("if" clause) in this use: "Someone who likes red and hates yellow would probably prefer strawberries to bananas" means the same as, "If someone liked red and hated yellow, he would probably prefer strawberries to bananas."

Would can also be used with no modal or temporal meaning, to effect either politeness or formality of speech:

* "I'd like a glass of water, please."
* "Would you be a dear and get me a glass of water?"
* "It would seem so."

All of these uses can be described as displaying remoteness: either remoteness of time (the past), remoteness of possibility (a conditional), or remoteness of relationship to the addressee (politeness or formality).