Residents will continue to enjoy meal subsidies under DBS and POSB’s 5 Million Hawker Meals initiative after DBS Bank announced on Jan 17 that the scheme would be extended for six months, till July 26.
Can “will” replace “would”?
Thanks.
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Assuming that you mean “will” can be replaced by “would” in this part of the sentence, I would not do it. It looks just fine.
So, I’ll also rephrase my sentence.
Assuming that you mean “would” can be replaced by “will” in this part of the sentence, I would not do it. It looks just fine.
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The sentence contains both words, ‘will’ and ‘would’. I assumed he meant replacing ‘would’ with ‘will’.
I don’t know the answer though. I think it’s OK as-is, but I don’t know for sure.
This is a case that the “correct” use of will and would is so complicated that I’d be very surprised if as much as 1% of native speakers understand it even after reading the “rules”. This basically means it doesn’t matter except to the extremely few people who think they know a “correct” way.
ANY time language gets that complicated, it means it doesn’t matter.
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Hi Dan, you’re right.
I meant “would” replaced by “will”. However, the sentence is correct as it is.
Yes, languages can get very complicated. Over here, a lot of native speakers don’t know the rules of Dutch and they just talk and write.
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Residents will continue to enjoy meal subsidies under DBS and POSB’s 5 Million Hawker Meals initiative after DBS Bank announced on Jan 17 that the scheme would be extended for six months, till July 26.
Can “will be extended" replace “would be extended"?
Thanks.
PS I have rephrased my question. I believe the original is not clear enough. My apologies for that.
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“… after DBS Bank announced on Jan 17 that the scheme would be extended for six months, till July 26.”
To me, the sentence, as it is, is correct according to the reporting practice. The modal (would) in the verbal needs to be in the past which is in tune with announced.
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So, Anglophile, the sentence is just fine, right?
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Yes, of course.
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Thank you, my dear Lawrence.
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I think others would disagree with me, but I would replace till with until. To me, till is very casual.
By the way, I just looked it up and apparently til (one L) and till (two Ls) are both correct spellings.
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Untill is a common misspelling of ‘until’, so ‘until’ is spelled with one ‘l’ and ‘up till’ is spelled with double ‘ll’. Ofcourse, this is what dictionaries say. If you were still in school your English teacher would probably mark it as a mistake, but as I say: ‘School was what is was.’ All the more so, because I don’t like, what Torsten once called : “School English”. That’s why I’m happy that I’m surrounded by native speakers of English on this platform. They are the best teachers and indeed, sometimes you have to look outside the box, because a lot of things cannot be justified by grammatical rules. Moreover, is there really a rule on how to make singular nouns plural, meaning those nouns which end in - o. Ofcourse, you write potatoes - tomatoes…but what about hero? Is it heros or heroes? Not a single gramarian has ever been able to give me satisfactory answer as far as that is concerned. Much the same as when to use a gerund or - ing form. Grammatically speaking there’s a difference between them. However, most natives I know say the grammar books may have rules for that, but you will only learn how to use these forms properly by listening, adopting and practising it. Especially since some rules make it look more difficult than it really is. By the way grammar is, in my opinion, a sort of invention - ofcourse it has its use, especially when you start to learning a foreign language, you need the basics - but when you really want to enjoy the finer points of languages, you need to go to a country where they speak the language, having very little knowlegde of the lingo, especially when you stick to the rules they taught you at school. I mean, sometimes I wake up screaming when actually having nightmares of Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Grammar. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with having a passion for languages. Passion, that’s important, all the rest is bonkers to certain extent. I have that passion for English. Now when I was thirty years younger, I used to say: ‘They haven’t used English in America for years’. But as life passed on, I came to realise that Americans do speak English. The accent is different, depending in which state you live and to be perfectly honest I still speak British. Now, let’s say, for some reason or other I had to go and live in the States, I’m absolutely sure that this would change - perhaps not the accent - but the expresssions, yes… And sometimes I catch myself saying: I wanna, I’m gonna… Yes, happening here in petit little Belgium and somehow, I LIKE IT VERY MUCH.
Now, as far as your other message is concerned, I have to re-read it again, because, boy, you are very intelligent - at least that’s how I feel. However, I never expected anything else, not from you or anybody else for that matter, because as my dear departed grandmother always used to say: ‘Marc, you should never overestimate people, but what you really shouldn’t do is underestimate them.’ I think you know very well what that wise lady wanted to make clear to me. It was worth more than the inheritance I got when she’d passed. See, Dan, as a kid I was always pampered, also by my grandmother but she was also very down to earth, just like my mother, who tried very hard to stop me from reacting to people like a rotten-to-the core spoilt child. Since it didn’t seem to work, she once said: 'Boy, if you continue like that, there’s no doubt about it that you’re going to have to learn the hard way. That’s exactly what happened, but now I feel quite happy about myself - until a few months ago, when I came to realise that I’d become an uncontrollable alcohol addict. I went for help, I got it and the result is, since April last year I’ve lost 21 kilo’s and I don’t touch a drop any more. I don’t go to AA, but to meetings where all kinds of addictions can be talked about. Even partners and parents can come along to pour their heart out to make others aware of how it’s like to live with an addict. I actually look forward to those meetings, because they alternate between heardache and humour. Yet, addictions never go away: they’re like a sword of Damocles - I know the expression is used for someone who has a lot of money and they have to be constantly on their guard. Yet, I also find it applicable in my case; I have to be on my guard for alcohol and there’s plenty, since you can buy it in almost every shop, supermarket and 24/7. I don’t know why I said this, but I think I indirectly wanted to break a taboo that is not easy to break, because some people will always say: ‘Once an addict, always an addict’ and that’s absolute nonsense.
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You look younger with this updated profile photo, Marc!
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Thank you, Lawrence.
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