Will vs. Would — What's the Difference?

Used to indicate intention or determination.

Used in conditional sentences to indicate a possible situation.

A legal document detailing how one's possessions should be distributed after death.

Used to make polite requests or offers.

The mental faculty by which one deliberately chooses or decides upon a course of action

Indicates a wish or desire.

Diligent purposefulness; determination

Used to express possibility or likelihood in the past.

Self-control; self-discipline

Indicates a past habit or routine.

A desire, purpose, or determination, especially of one in authority

Past of will, in various senses

Deliberate intention or wish

(expressing the conditional mood) indicating the consequence of an imagined event or situation

Free discretion; inclination or pleasure

Expressing a desire or inclination

Bearing or attitude toward others; disposition

Expressing a polite request

A legal declaration of how a person wishes their personal possessions to be disposed of after death.

Expressing a conjecture, opinion, or hope

A legally executed document containing this declaration.

Used to make a comment about behaviour that is typical

To decide on or intend

Expressing a wish or regret

To yearn for; desire

Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive.

To decree, dictate, or order

Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.

To induce or try to induce by sheer force of will

Used to; was or were habitually accustomed to; indicating an action in the past that happened repeatedly or commonly.

To grant in a legal will; bequeath

Was or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something.

To order to direct in a legal will

Could naturally have been expected to (given the tendencies of someone's character etc.).

To exercise the will.

(archaic) Wanted to.

To make a choice; choose

(archaic) Used with ellipsis of the infinitive verb, or postponement to a relative clause, in various senses.

To wish; desire

(obsolete) Wished, desired (something).

(auxiliary) Used to express the future tense, sometimes with some implication of volition when used in the first person. Compare shall.

A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive.

(auxiliary) To be able to, to have the capacity to.

Used as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality, indicating a state or action that is conditional on another.

(auxiliary) Expressing a present tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference".

Without explicit condition, or with loose or vague implied condition, indicating a hypothetical or imagined state or action.

(auxiliary) To habitually do (a given action).

Suggesting conditionality or potentiality in order to express a sense of politeness, tentativeness, indirectness, hesitancy, uncertainty, etc.

(auxiliary) To choose or agree to (do something); used to express intention but without any temporal connotations (+ bare infinitive), often in questions and negation.

Used to express what the speaker would do in another person's situation, as a means of giving a suggestion or recommendation.

To wish, desire (something).

Used to express the speaker's belief or assumption.

To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that).

Used interrogatively to express a polite request; are (you) willing to …?

(archaic) Implying will go.

Might wish (+ verb in past subjunctive); often used in the first person (with or without that) in the sense of "if only".

To instruct (that something be done) in one's will.

Might desire; wish (something).

(transitive) To bequeath (something) to someone in one's will (legal document).

Something that would happen, or would be the case, under different circumstances; a potentiality.

(transitive) To exert one's force of will (intention) in order to compel, or attempt to compel, something to happen or someone to do something.

Commonly used as an auxiliary verb, either in the past tense or in the conditional or optative present. See 2d & 3d Will.

One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention.

See 2d Weld.

The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition.

One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands.

Firmity of purpose, fixity of intent

(law) A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.

(archaic) That which is desired; one's wish.

(archaic) Desire, longing. (Now generally merged with later senses.)

The power of choosing; the faculty or endowment of the soul by which it is capable of choosing; the faculty or power of the mind by which we decide to do or not to do; the power or faculty of preferring or selecting one of two or more objects.

The choice which is made; a determination or preference which results from the act or exercise of the power of choice; a volition.

The choice or determination of one who has authority; a decree; a command; discretionary pleasure.

Strong wish or inclination; desire; purpose.

That which is strongly wished or desired.

Arbitrary disposal; power to control, dispose, or determine.

The legal declaration of a person's mind as to the manner in which he would have his property or estate disposed of after his death; the written instrument, legally executed, by which a man makes disposition of his estate, to take effect after his death; testament; devise. See the Note under Testament, 1.

To wish; to desire; to incline to have.

As an auxiliary, will is used to denote futurity dependent on the verb. Thus, in first person, "I will" denotes willingness, consent, promise; and when "will" is emphasized, it denotes determination or fixed purpose; as, I will go if you wish; I will go at all hazards. In the second and third persons, the idea of distinct volition, wish, or purpose is evanescent, and simple certainty is appropriately expressed; as, "You will go," or "He will go," describes a future event as a fact only. To emphasize will denotes (according to the tone or context) certain futurity or fixed determination.

To be willing; to be inclined or disposed; to be pleased; to wish; to desire.

To form a distinct volition of; to determine by an act of choice; to ordain; to decree.

To enjoin or command, as that which is determined by an act of volition; to direct; to order.

To give or direct the disposal of by testament; to bequeath; to devise; as, to will one's estate to a child; also, to order or direct by testament; as, he willed that his nephew should have his watch.

To exercise an act of volition; to choose; to decide; to determine; to decree.

The capability of conscious choice and decision and intention;

A fixed and persistent intent or purpose;

A legal document declaring a person's wishes regarding the disposal of their property when they die

Decree or ordain;

Have in mind;

Determine by choice;

Leave or give by will after one's death;

Used to express future actions or events.

Used to make promises or offers.

Used to give orders or commands.

Yes, e.g., "Will you come to the party?"

"Would" softens the tone, making requests like "Would you help?" sound more courteous.

Not always. It can indicate past habits, but it's also used for hypotheticals or polite requests.

Yes, e.g., "I will support you."

Primarily, but it can also express determination or promises, not strictly future actions.

Both can express the future, but "will" often feels more spontaneous or certain than "going to".

Both can indicate past habits, but "would" often emphasizes repetition, while "used to" emphasizes the discontinuity of the habit.

Yes, like "We would visit Grandma every Sunday."

Yes, e.g., "It will rain tomorrow."

Yes, e.g., "If it rains, I will stay home."

Yes, like in "I would go if I could."

The second and third conditionals, e.g., "If I knew, I would tell you."

Yes, as in "The car won't start," implying refusal.

It can report a statement with "will" from direct speech, like "He said he would come."

Yes, "will" can be "I'll" and "would" can be "I'd" in contractions.