Contents introduction chapter I grammatical meaning, grammatical form

Will and would. The modal will is often used to express futurity (The next meeting will be held on Thursday). Since this is an expression of time rather than modality, constructions with will (or sometimes shall; see above and at shall and will) are often referred to as the future tense of English, and forms like will do, will be doing, will have done and will have been doing are often called the simple future, future progressive (or future continuous), future perfect, and future perfect progressive (continuous). With first-person subjects (I, we), in varieties where shall is used for simple expression of futurity, the use of will indicates particular willingness or determination.
Future events are also sometimes referred to using the present tense (see Uses of English verb forms), or using the going to construction. Will as a modal also has a number of different uses:
It can express habitual aspect; for example, he will make mistakes may mean that he frequently makes mistakes (here the word will is usually stressed somewhat, and often expresses annoyance).
It can express strong probability with present time reference, as in That will be John at the door.
It can be used to give an order, as in You will do it right now.
The preterit form would is used in some conditional sentences, and as a past form of future will as described above under Past forms. (It is sometimes replaced by should in the first person in the same way that will is replaced by shall.) Other uses of would include:
Expression of politeness, as in I would like... (for "I want") and Would you (be so kind as to) do this? (for "Please do this").
Expression of habitual aspect in past time, as in Back then, I would eat early and would walk to school.
Both will and would can be used with the perfect infinitive (will have, would have), either to form the future perfect and conditional perfect forms already
referred to, or to express perfect aspect in their other meanings (e.g. there will have been an arrest order, expressing strong probability).
The negated forms are will not (contracted to won't) and would not (contracted to wouldn't). In the modal meanings of will the negation is effectively applied to the main verb phrase and not to the modality (e.g. when expressing an order, you will not do it expresses an order not to do it, rather than just the absence of an order to do it).
For contracted forms of will and would themselves, see Contractions and reduced pronunciation above