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should be vs. would be



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Me also vs. me too? | What is the meaning of, in the dog's house
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should be vs. would be #1 (permalink) Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:28 am   should be vs. would be
 

Hi all, please help the following as well...

-------------------------------------------------
It's surprising that this restaurant [...] be so successful. The food isn't very good.
[A] might
[B] should
[C] would

I don't understand why "should" (B) is the correct answer as said in the book... It should be "would", shouldn't it?

I would appreciate if some expert would help me tell the difference between these verbs...

Thank you very much for your time.
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Thank you very much,
Hieu Phan.

P/s: Please just correct if I'm wrong somewhere!
Hieupt
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should be vs. would be #2 (permalink) Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:42 am   should be vs. would be
 

This problem happens to have crossed my mind only yesterday! I was sure it must be "should" in such cases, but why? It just feels good. You may be somewhat consoled with the fact that Fowler, the great style guru of 20th-century English, didn't know either. He says about this "should": "we can only guess at its origin". I'd say subordinate clauses of sentences that express some sort of surprise or unexpectedness have "should". Perhaps someone else here knows a better rule for this?
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should be vs. would be #3 (permalink) Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:19 am   should be vs. would be
 

Well, I should accept the truth as I usually got the same answers like this! Thanks Cerberus! Smile
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Thank you very much,
Hieu Phan.

P/s: Please just correct if I'm wrong somewhere!
Hieupt
I'm here quite often ;-)


Joined: 03 Mar 2009
Posts: 159
Location: Vietnam

should be vs. would be #4 (permalink) Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:21 am   should be vs. would be
 

I can give you Fowler's tentative hypothesis, if you're really interested. Be warned that it is somewhat complicated and rather inconclusive.
Cerberus™
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should be vs. would be #5 (permalink) Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:20 am   should be vs. would be
 

Cerberus™ wrote:
I can give you Fowler's tentative hypothesis, if you're really interested. Be warned that it is somewhat complicated and rather inconclusive.


Quote:
What's that? Does it have anything to do with Fowler's toads?

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should be vs. would be #6 (permalink) Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:44 am   should be vs. would be
 

Probably not. See my first post.
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