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If someone says that sentence in the title when they are fumingly slamming the nob, then would "would" in the phrase mean three things below at the same time?

  1. I really want to know what were they thinking when they lock the door.
  2. Why do some people would always try to lock any door?
  3. Why do these kind of people who lock every doors even exist in the world?
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  • What is meant by "slamming the nob"?
    – Corsaka
    Commented Jan 31, 2020 at 11:23
  • Not knowing why the person is angry or what door they are talking about, it's impossible to say exactly what they mean.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jan 31, 2020 at 13:30

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"Would" here is a modal verb and is used after 'why' to ask the reason for something.

The question is why would anyone lock the door, so it is as broad a question as possible. The person is asking for a general reason to lock a door. The question is possibly rhetorical, as it could mean the person can personally think of no good reason why.

It is different from asking why specific people lock their doors, for example:

Why do people lock their doors?

This is a more genuine question, not rhetorical. It is arguably extended to all people, but as it must be based on the observation that people do lock their doors, it only really refers to those people the asker knows about.

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  • Thanks, so if there maybe any kind of proper contexts are given, would my 3 interpretation could possibly fit as correct meanings respectively? Or are they all totally wrong under any cases at all?
    – dolco
    Commented Jan 31, 2020 at 15:12
  • @dolco I don't think there are contexts where numbers 2 or 3 could fit, because somebody wouldn't use "the" to talk about doors in general.
    – Alpha Draconis
    Commented Jan 31, 2020 at 23:13

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