How to use would in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, noun
Would means used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time. Example: “On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.”
Examples of would by meaning
verbUsed to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.
- On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.
- I'm really flattered you would call your daughter after me.
- They thought anything Elvis did would sell, but that was not true.
verbUsed to, did repeatedly, habitually; indicates an action that happened several times in the past (cannot describe...
- When we were younger, we would cycle out to the beach most summer Sundays.
- When we were kids we would sit by the radio with a tape recorder on a Sunday, listening out for the chart songs we wanted to have.2009 March 15, “Soundtrack of my life”, in The Guardian
verbWas or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something.
- I asked her to stay in with me, but she would go out.
verbUsed as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality, indicating a state or action that is conditional on another.
- If I won the lottery, I would give half the money to charity.
verbWithout explicit condition, or with loose or vague implied condition, indicating a hypothetical or imagined state or...
- I would love to come and visit.
- Look at that yummy cake! I would eat that all up!
- Most other people would do it differently, helping anybody who was in trouble, whether they knew them or not.
verbSuggesting conditionality or potentiality in order to express a sense of politeness, tentativeness, indirectness...
- I would ask you all to sit down.
- I would imagine that they have already left.
- It would seem so.2010 February 2, Terry Pratchett, “My case for a euthanasia tribunal”, in The Guardian
verbUsed to express what the speaker would do in another person's situation, as a means of giving a suggestion or...
- It's disgraceful the way that they've treated you. I would write and complain.
verbUsed to express the speaker's belief or assumption.
- She looked as if she would be sick.
- He's very security-conscious, so he would have remembered to lock the door.
- They would be arriving in London round about now.
More sentences with would
- To deny that the arrangement was a quid pro quo would be laughably disingenuous.From the entry quid pro quo
- He canned the whole project because he thought it would fail.From the entry can
- Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.From the entry bit
- They guaranteed that our Web site would have 99.99% uptime, or four nines.From the entry nine
- I think some Christians would love Jesus more if they weren't so stuck in religion.From the entry religion
- A free, open Internet without advertising or paywalls would be an infotopia.From the entry infotopia
- A holiday somewhere warm – Florida, say – would be nice.From the entry say
- He looked at the bottle of pain pills, wondering if they would work.From the entry work
- Who would win in a fight between an octopus and a dolphin?From the entry win
- What kind of drink would you like? We have soft drinks and hard drinks.From the entry drink
- Her baby had always been active, even before he was born, when he would kick her bladder.From the entry baby
- Fractions would be a little easier if we counted by twelves.From the entry twelve
- This song would sound better with the addition of a cowbell.From the entry cowbell
- If more drivers knew how to zipper, the accident would not have disrupted traffic so much.From the entry zipper
- The police said they would wring the truth out of that criminal.From the entry wring
- The cast would need a great deal of machining to become a recognizable finished part.From the entry cast
- Of an evening, we would often go for a stroll along the river.From the entry of
- A typical annual water level regime would include a gradual summer drawdown beginning in early May.From the entry regime
- There was no doubt in his mind that they would win.From the entry mind
- Conditioning would require exposition to any sentence before being uttered, which isn’t the case.From the entry case
- Thank you, sister. I would like to thank the sister who just spoke.From the entry sister
- I already have a son, so I would like to have a daughter.From the entry daughter
- Would you like another piece of cake? — That I would!From the entry that
Meaning of would
- verb Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.
- verb Used to, did repeatedly, habitually; indicates an action that happened several times in the past (cannot describe continuous states, as in I used to live in London).
- verb Was or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something.
Questions about would in a sentence
- How do you use would in a sentence?
- Would is used as a verb and noun. For example: “On my first day at University, I met the woman who would become my wife.”
- What is a short sentence with would?
- “It would seem so.”
- What does would mean?
- Would means used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: would (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use would in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/would. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.