English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I read this paragraph and wonder what the word 'would' means here.
But distraught relatives gathered in a gymnasium on nearby Jindo island insisted more should be done, and vented their grief and frustration to anyone who would listen."Get my child out of that ship! Dead or alive," one distraught father repeatedly shouted to rescue and local government officials."
Would here is will transposed into the past, as Maulik states. Semantically, will/would indicates willingness here. Here’s a straightforward example given by the American Heritage Dictionary under will.
[Entry 3] Used to indicate willingness: Will you help me with this package?
To make this more obvious, we could paraphrase your sentence like this:
They vented their grief and frustration to anyone who was willing to listen.
They vented their grief and frustration to anyone willing to listen.
The modal verb would is simple to understand there. The news is in past tense and would denotes the past tense of will there.
Go back (in past) when this would have actually happened. Replace would (which is a past tense of will) with will and It'll make it clear.
...and vent their grief and frustration to anyone who will listen (to them).
