I see the difference as Would is indicative of intent. E.g. would you drink coffee Could us indicative of ability. E.g. could you drink coffee

And this we get the best ending lyric from Alice in Chains…“if I would, could you ?”

They don’t have their own meaning. They modify the tense and mood of the sentence. In many languages, this is built into the verb but English doesn’t have that power. As a result, you have to use external modifiers.

Let’s see if I can give at least something understandable. To start with, definitely not past tence.

If you ask “would you like coffee?” you’re asking in the present if coffee is something the person wants to drink now. If you ask “would you go to the store?” you are asking if the person doesn’t mind going to the store.

Could is similar but is slightly different, is to ask if the person can do something.

Could you take out the trash ? - are you able to take out the trash?

Would you take out the trash? - do you mind taking out the trash?

Not sure this helps, but in project management there’s this think called the MoSCoW scale to define how important a requirement is, it looks like:

Must (you have to do it)

Should (very important but not as important)

Could (not important but if you can you should do it)

Would (would like to have, this is definitely not important but if you have enough time it’d be great)

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Would is a hypothetical will. “Would you dance” is a general query, but “will you dance” is a call to action. A lot of the time, would is followed by if, as in, “would you dance if I asked you to?”

“Would you like coffee” is a round-about way to ask if you want coffee. Full form would be “if I brought you coffee, would you like it?”

Past tense is “would have”, such as “would you have liked coffee?” This is generally a missed opportinuty where you didn’t do something, and you’re asking so you can know more for the future. Saying “I would have” generally means “I didn’t.”

You’re probably gonna get a better technical answer in [email protected] on language questions.

It’s not dealing with the past, but with things that don’t happen or might not happen.

Does this answer your question? It’s probably better than an ad-hoc explanation.

https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/How-to-Use-Could-Would-and-Should

Could is maybe-can: I bet I could jump over that car [if I wanted to].

As opposed to I bet I can jump over that car [and I’m going to try].

Would is maybe-will: If you saw an alligator, would you run away?

Would is also ‘did’, for habitual actions. When I was young, I would wait by the window for my father to come home.

I’m not an English teacher but here’s a way of trying to understand these.

would can have various forms, but as used here “would you like coffee?” is not asking if you liked in the past, it’s rather if you want now (or in the future) in a slightly more polite form. Would is a conditional. “would you take the blue or the red pill?” It’s giving you a choice.

Can/could ask more about intent and whether you’re able to do something. “Can you do X?” (Or could you do X? Is the same but a bit more formal). Is asking if the person is capable and wants to do something. “Would you do something?” Gives the person the conditional of either doing something else or just not doing it. It’s a question with an “or else …”.

Could is also the past form of Can. “I could have done it (in the past) but I did not do it” vs. I can do it (now or in the future).

Hope it gives you a starting point!

To give you a final example using various forms:

“You could have Googled this, but you wouldn’t want to waste time scrolling to the useless AI results, which I perfectly understand; we can’t spend all day reading AI generated text.”

Do you ever get that thing where the more you look at a word the more it looks wrong? I’m getting that with “would” and “could” after reading this thread.

Would is more definitive than could in most cases.

“That sounds like something Jim would do.”

“I don’t think Kevin would ever do that.”

But when phrased as a question, “Would you like coffee?” it’s asking your preference, again, a definitive yes/no.

Could is less about definitive fact, and more about possibilities.

“Yes, I could see Jim doing that.”

Did he do it? Did he not do it? Unknown, but the possibility is there.

“No, I don’t think Kevin could do that.”

Is it POSSIBLE Kevin did something? It’s possible, but the speaker finds it unlikely.

Did you try to search for “would dictionary”? Also you could search for “would your_language”.

I didn’t really see people mentioning that “would” can still be used past-tense outside of “would have,” though it’s not in the same way - you use it when talking about something that happened multiple times in the past. For example, “When I was a kid my friends and I would go to the pool every Saturday,” which means that, as children, my friends and I did visit the pool every Saturday.

Would: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/would
• a simple past tense and past participle of will
• used to express an intention or inclination
• used to express an uncertainty
• used in conditional sentences to express choice or possibility

Could: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/could
• a simple past tense of can
• used to express possibility
• used to express conditional possibility or ability
• used in asking for permission

Would / will is used when something is possible but you’re not sure.
Could / can is used when you’re not sure if something is possible. –

Consider the difference between “would do” and “could do” to be the same as “will do” and “can do”, respectively.

One implies action, the other implies capability.

There’s also “should”, which implies permission.

Consider, also, the progress of learning Python (programming language):

1. Could I do this in Python?
2. I would do this in Python.
3. I shouldn’t do this in Python.

Edit to add: Would, could, and should are usually considered future-tense. But add “have” and it’s past-tense…“I would have done that”