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Egypt flagHazem
Would have,wouldnt have confuse me,what the purpose for using it,can you rewrite it in other way ? . The diagnosis was not something he or my mother dwelled upon. We were decades, still, from a time when a simple Google search would bring up a head-spinning array of charts, statistics, and medical explainers that either gave or took away hope. I doubt he would have wanted to see them anyway. Although my father was raised in the church, he wouldn’t have prayed for God to spare him. He wouldn’t have looked for alternative treatments or a guru or some faulty gene to blame.

Answers · 28

1
Hi Hazem, maybe it could help to think of this text in this way: The writer is imagining himself/herself back in time. He/she is imagining his parents reactions to the diagnosis of an illness, as if the writer were a witness to these reactions. He imagines what his parents would say: e.g. "I am not going to dwell on this. I don't want to worry myself with a lot of statistics about this illness", and, "I am not going to pray to God about this. I am not going to look for new treatments, or seek help, or try to place blame somewhere". He probably thinks that, knowing his parents' characters, their reaction would be like this. Then, the writer uses the conditional to tell US, at the present time, in this text, about the reactions his parents "would have had" in this hypothetical, imagined situation.
1
Hello Hazem! "wouldn't have", the contraction of "would not have", is the negative of "would have". Would have is a modal verb - a conditional as you said. In the sentence what is being said is that the father "would not have prayed for healing" or "looked for alternative treatments or a guru or some faulty gene to blame". And the writer hasn't said anything about a condition for this but as a reader, you can assume that the conditional (or an alternative for what he "wouldn't do" is something like this: Although my father was raised in the church, he wouldn’t have prayed for God to spare him - "he was prepared to face it on his own and to accept his fate". So it is not about imagination but rather about the alternative to what he "wouldn't have done". I hope that helps!
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Although my father was raised in the church, he wouldn’t have prayed for God to spare him. He wouldn’t have looked for alternative treatments The story teller is certain that his father WOULD NOT pray for God to spare him. He is also certain that his father WOULD NOT look for alternative treatment. When the story teller says "I doubt he would have", that's a negative. Almost like "he would not have" like the other two statements, but not as strong, not certain. The story teller's OPINION is that the father would not have, but it's not 100% certain. Another way to say it would be "He probably would not have". Hope this helps.
0
I agree with Melanie. These are suppositions about her father's behavior. More information here: https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-modal-would.htm
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I know the use of it in conditional,but here i think it different,is this for imagination?

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