WOULDN’T (past willingness) – English Grammar Profiler

‘Willingness‘ = being prepared to do something (readiness).

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 105 in the category of MODALITY is defined:

negative forms of ‘would’ to talk about willingness in the past.

For example:

Dad wanted him buried in the family plot in St Louis, but Pete wouldn’t allow it.

Philomena

Helen, come on! She wouldn’t wait for you.

Edward Scissorhands

The EGP examples include the bare infinitives ‘wait’ and ‘allow’.  This is incredibly hard to automatically differentiate in corpora from structures like the ‘second conditional’, reported speech or thought.  The best we can do in iWeb is search for:

_VVD * * would _XX

but almost all our examples are reported speech.

1 SAID THAT HE WOULD NOT 422 2 SAID, I WOULDN’T 363 3 ANNOUNCED THAT HE WOULD NOT 263 4 SAID THAT THEY WOULD NOT 261 5 ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD NOT 260 6 SAID THAT IT WOULD NOT 188 7 SAID THAT HE WOULDN’T 173 8 KNEW THAT I WOULDN’T 139 9 SAID, I WOULD NOT 130 10 SAID THAT IT WOULDN’T 121 11 KNEW THAT I WOULD NOT 120 12 SAID THAT SHE WOULD NOT 116 13 TOLD ME I WOULDN’T 105 14 PROMISED MYSELF I WOULDN’T 104 15 DECIDED THAT I WOULD NOT 103 16 KNEW THAT HE WOULD NOT 100 17 SAID THE COMPANY WOULD NOT 96 18 TOLD HIM I WOULDN’T 94 19 SAID THAT THEY WOULDN’T 90 20 KNEW THAT IT WOULDN’T 85 21 KNEW THAT IT WOULD NOT 83 22 TOLD ME HE WOULDN’T 79 23 KNEW THAT THEY WOULD NOT 77 24 ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WOULD NOT 76 25 TOLD MYSELF I WOULDN’T 73 26 TOLD ME IT WOULDN’T 73 27 SAID THAT I WOULD NOT 72 28 SAID, IT WOULDN’T 71 29 SAID HE ”WOULDN’T 68 30 SAID. HE WOULD NOT 68 31 TOLD HIM I WOULD NOT 68 32 TOLD ME I WOULD NOT 68 33 TOLD ME THEY WOULD NOT 66 34 TOLD ME HE WOULD NOT 64 35 KNEW THAT HE WOULDN’T 63 36 SAID THE GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT 62 37 SAID THAT SHE WOULDN’T 62 38 SAID THAT I WOULDN’T 62 39 ADDED THAT HE WOULD NOT 62 40 STATED THAT HE WOULD NOT 60

41 TOLD HER I WOULD NOT 59

42 THOUGHT THAT I WOULDN’T 56

TLC STUDENT SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE:

I remember I thought that I wouldn’t have friends because I was new.

female Argentina B2

*this is not ‘willingness’ though.  It is more a prediction.  Still, it shows a high level of complexity.

43 STATED THAT THEY WOULD NOT 55 44 SAID , HE WOULD NOT 55 45 REPLIED THAT HE WOULD NOT 54 46 THOUGHT, ‘ WOULDN’T 51 47 DECIDED THAT I WOULDN’T 51 48 SAID ”I WOULDN’T 50

49 TOLD ME THEY WOULDN’T 49

EXPERT EXAMPLE:

Incidentally, the whole episode brought to light the hypocrisy of some critics who lamented at the poor English,

and yet are not at all critical of Malaysians who could not or would not communicate adequately in the national language.

nst.com.my