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 was wondering which whether using the modal verb "would" in the following sentence is necessary or not.
- She was going to start her independent life with her husband before long. That was she why wanted their wedding...... quickly.
a. to take place
b. would take place
I think whereas the tense of the sentence is future in the past, using "would" is necessary. Please do me a favor and correct me if I am mistaken.
The verb "want" must be followed by an infinitive (or by a noun), as in "I want to go" or "I want him to go" or "she wants their wedding to take place quickly".
When we change "want" to "wanted", that infinitive remains. "She wanted their wedding to take place quickly."
It would be ungrammatical to say "she wanted her wedding would take place quickly".
You could say "she wished that their wedding would take place quickly". But if you were talking about wishes in the present tense, you would still use "would": "she wishes that their wedding would take place quickly". This is because "would" reflects the unreal nature of the wish, as in "I wish I were ...", "I wish I could ...", "I wish I had ...".
