In the movie Alien: Covenant (2017) WALTER: A rogue transmission, most probably. Your helmet must have picked it up because you were so far out... past our communication buffers. Captain Oram: Is there audio, Mother? MOTHER: Collating. A moment. I've reoriented the transmission, Captain Oram. Another crew member: (distorted static continues... ) That would be an echo. The instruments took a lot of damage. Would it sound better to say ‘must' instead of 'would'? Any differences?

He pushed against the wall. vs. He pushed the wall. Any nuances?

Any nuances between the uses of 'glow'? The tip of a cigarette glowed in the dark doorway. The tip of a cigarette was glowing in the dark doorway.

For example, if A has just bet B £5 that B will not jump into the swimming pool fully clothed, and B defiantly starts to walk towards the pool, A may well say something like: A: My God, you would too! But Practical English Usage introduced another use of 'would'. Stressed 'would' can also be used to criticise a single past action - the meaning is 'that's typical of you'. You WOULD tell Mary about the party - I didn't want to invite her. In the 'bet' example, A didn't seem to be criticising B's reaction. A was even surprised at B's reaction. Is that a different use of 'would' then?

Out of context, the following is ambiguous between several readings: I would have thought John was right about that. Under neutral sentence intonation, there are three readings. One interpretation is Ί think John is right'. This implies that nothing definite is known about whether John is actually right or not. 'Would have thought' expresses politeness (or hesitancy) twice: once by polite 'would' and once by back-shifting 'would think' to 'would have thought'. The second reading is 'That would have been my opinion, but it turns out that I would have been wrong.' The third reading is the counterfactual 'That would have been my opinion if I had thought about it, which (for whatever reason) I didn't'. In addition, a special accent on thought (i.e. I would have THOUGHT John was right about that) produces the reading 'That would have been my opinion, and it turns out that I would have been right.' -- Conditionals: A Comprehensive Empirical Analysis by Renaat Declerck & Susan Reed (2001) I don't see the difference between the second reading and the third one. Can you please make up some contexts for either one?

I know 'up at the cabin' sounds natural, but why 'down at the cabin' doesn't?

The following line is taken from Sin City 2005, Bad guy: John Hartigan, Mr. "Law and Order", Mr. "By-The-Book", Mr. High and Mighty. I got to give you credit. Being such a straight arrow for so damn many years without it catching up with you. It's catching up with you now, friend of mine. What does it refer to here? A straight arrow? But that would make no sense: You being such a straight arrow for so damn many years without the straight arrow catching up with you.

For example, if A has just bet B £5 that B will not jump into the swimming pool fully clothed, and B defiantly starts to walk towards the pool, A may well say something like: A: My God, you would too! But Practical English Usage introduced another use of 'would'. Stressed 'would' can also be used to criticise a single past action - the meaning is 'that's typical of you'. You WOULD tell Mary about the party - I didn't want to invite her. In the 'bet' example, A doesn't seem to criticise B's reaction. He wasn't even expecting B's atypical reaction. What's is this use of 'would' then?