Ought vs Would - What's the difference?
ought | would |
(obsolete) (owe)
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Luke VII:
*, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.182:
(auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation.
(auxiliary) Indicating advisability or prudence.
(auxiliary) Indicating desirability.
(auxiliary) Indicating likelihood or probability.
* , chapter=3
, title= anything
* Bishop Joseph Hall
at all, to any degree.
A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.
* {{quote-book, year=1996, title=The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense, author=Mortimer Jerome Adler
, passage=There are value judgments that are not reducible to observable matters of fact, and there are oughts that cannot be construed as hypothetical and, therefore, cannot be converted into statements of fact.
* {{quote-book, year=2004, title=Truth Matters: Essays in Honor of Jacques Maritain, author=Jacques Maritain, John G. Trapani
, passage=Is there a fallacy involved in deriving an ought from a set of exclusively factual or descriptive premises?
(lb) As a past-tense form of (will).
#(lb) Wished, desired (something).
#(lb) Wanted to ( + bare infinitive).
#*1852 , James Murdock, trans. Johann Lorenz Mosheim, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History , II.7.iii:
#*:The Greeks, especially those who would be thought adepts in mystic theology, ran after fantastic allegories.
#Used to; was or were habitually accustomed to ( + bare infinitive); indicating an action in the past that happened repeatedly or commonly.
#*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4
, passage=No matter how early I came down, I would' find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man ' would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.}}
#*2009 , "Soundtrack of my life", The Guardian , 15 March:
#*: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.
#Used with bare infinitive to form the "anterior future", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.
#*1867 , (Anthony Trollope), (w) , Ch.28:
#*:That her Lily should have been won and not worn, had been, and would be, a trouble to her for ever.
#*
#*:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
#*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 5, author=Phil Dawkes, work=BBC Sport
, title= #(lb) Used with ellipsis of the infinitive verb, or postponement to a relative clause, in various senses.
#*1724 , (Daniel Defoe), , Penguin p.107:
#*:He sat as one astonish'd, a good-while, looking at me, without speaking a Word, till I came quite up to him, kneel'd on one Knee to him, and almost whether he would or no, kiss'd his Hand.
#*1846 , "A New Sentimental Journey", Blackwoods Magazine , vol.LX, no.372:
#*:If I could fly, I would away to those realms of light and warmth – far, far away in the southern clime.
#Was determined to; loosely, could naturally have been expected to (given the tendencies of someone's character etc.).
#*1835 , (Charles Dickens), (Sketches by Boz) , V:
#*:Then he took to breeding silk-worms, which he would bring in two or three times a day, in little paper boxes, to show the old lady.
#*2009 , "Is the era of free news over?", The Observer ,
#*:The free access model, the media magnate said last week, was "malfunctioning". Well he would , wouldn't he?
(lb) As a modal verb, the subjunctive of will.
#Used to give a conditional or potential "softening" to the present; might, might wish.
#*2008 , Mark Cocker, "Country Diary", The Guardian , 3 November:
#*:It's a piece of old folklore for which I would love to find hard proof.
#Used as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality (with a bare infinitive); indicating an action or state that is conditional on another.
#*2010 , The Guardian , 26 February:
#*:Warnock admitted it would be the ideal scenario if he received a Carling Cup winners' medal as well as an England call-up.
#
#*1859 , (John Bunyan), (w, The Pilgrim's Progress) ,
#*:I presently wished, would' that I had been in their clothes! '''would''' that I had been born Peter! ' would that I had been born John!
#*1868 , Sir (Walter Scott), (Ivanhoe) , Ch.23:
#*:I would she had retained her original haughtiness of disposition, or that I had a larger share of Front-de-Bœuf's thrice-tempered hardness of heart!
#Used to impart a sense of hesitancy or uncertainty to the present; might be inclined to. Now sometimes colloquially with ironic effect.
#*2009 , Nick Snow, The Rocket's Trail , p.112:
#*:“Those trials are being run by the American army so surely you must have access to the documents?” “Well, yeah, you’d think.”
#*2010 , (Terry Pratchett), "My case for a euthanasia tribunal", The Guardian ,
#*:Departing on schedule with the help of a friendly doctor was quite usual. Does that still apply? It would seem so.
#Used interrogatively to express a polite request; are (you) willing to …?
#:
#
#*1608 , (William Shakespeare), (King Lear) , I.4:
#*:What dost thou professe? What would’st thou with vs?
As verbs the difference between ought and would
is that ought is (obsolete) (owe) or ought can be (auxiliary) indicating duty or obligation while would is (lb) as a past-tense form of (will) .As a pronoun ought
is anything .As an adverb ought
is at all, to any degree.As a noun ought
is a statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case or ought can be cipher, zero, nought.ought
English
Etymology 1
(etyl)Verb
(head)- There was a certayne lender, which had two detters, the one ought five hondred pence, and the other fifty.
- witnesse Aristippus , who being urged with the affection he ought his children, as proceeding from his loynes, began to spit.
Verb
(head)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
Usage notes
* Ought'' is an auxiliary verb; it takes a following verb as its complement. This verb may appear either as a full infinitive (such as "to go") or a bare infinitive (such as simple "go"), depending on region and speaker; the same range of meanings is possible in either case. Additionally, it's possible for ''ought not to take any complement, in which case a verb complement is implied, as in, "You really ought to [do so]." * The negative of ought'' is either ''ought not (to)'' or ''oughtn't (to)Synonyms
* should (In all senses)See also
* ought to *Pronoun
(English Pronouns)- Is it a small benefit, that I am placed there where I see no drunken comessations, no rebellious routs, no violent oppressions, no obscene rejoicings, nor ought else that might either vex or affright my soul?
Adverb
(-)See also
* aught * naught * noughtNoun
(en noun)citation
citation
References
* *Etymology 2
Statistics
*would
English
Alternative forms
* (obsolete)Verb
(head)QPR 2-3 Man City, passage=Toure would have the decisive say though, rising high to power a header past Kenny from Aleksandar Kolarov's cross.}}