[Alex80]

Hi everyone! can you tell me what meaning the word 'wouldn't' could carry if we used it instead of ' didn't' in the following sentence:
* She'll be working late, so I won't call her at the crack of dawn.
The answer(Future in the past) :
I knew she'd be working late, so I didn't call her at the crack of dawn.
Note: It's just an exercise sentence about changing it into the future in the past. There's no context.
As I know , ' won't' should be changed into 'wouldn't'. Why is 'didn't' used instead?
I need an explanation, please!
Thanks in advance

[susan53]

Because of the difference in meaning.

WILL expresses two concepts:
1. Prediction - as in "She'll be working late" which expresses your prediction of the event
and
2. Volition - here your intention not to call her in the morning: ... so I won't call her...

If you were reporting that, so it was all in past time, you would say: I knew she would (1) be working late so I decided I wouldn't (2) call her early in the morning.
Here, would expresses the report of (1) a prediction made in the past and (2) an intention expressed in the past.

But as time moves on and the day after "not calling her" stops being an intention and becomes a past event, and a fact (you didn't call her). So what you're expressing is now the simple factual event. The first part is still the report of your prediction - I knew she would be working late, but then you continue simply by describing the past event : so I didn't call her.

There's nothing "future" about it at all. WILL expresses present prediction/Volition and WOULD expresses past prediction/volition. When we're just talking about past events, stated as facts, they're irrelevant.

Hope that makes sense.
Sue

[Alex80]

Do you mean it's correct to say 'I knew she'd be working late, so I wouldn't call her at the crack of dawn' as future in the past without adding any word to the sentence? Just
Changing 'won't' into ' wouldn't'.
I'm a little confused. When I report ' won't' I change it into ' wouldn't. Is it OK to use this modal instead of 'didn't' as future in the past?
Thanks again Sue

[susan53]

As I said. There is no such thing as future in the past as far as verbs are concerned. All English verbs which refer to time are either present or past. There are no future forms. Compare ;
1. Sorry I can't talk to you now. I'm having a meeting with John.
2. Sorry, I can't come tomorrow. I'm having a meeting with John.

The verbs are identical. Both express a present on-going event.

(1) is a present event because it's currently on-going- I'm in the middle of the meeting. How do we know? Because of the word "now" (and the general context of the conversation.

(2) is a present on-going arrangement for a future event. It was arranged a while ago and hasn't yet happened - so again, I'm "in the middle" of the process. But how do we know the event itself is future? Again, because of the adverb "tomorrow". There's nothing in the verb itself that tells us.

Notice that in the original answers I stressed that we were talking about predictions, volition and events that were either present or past.

Each verb expresses its own meaning, and we combine them depending on what meaning we want to express.
So when "not calling her" is a past event, we express it with the simple past. When it's an expression of our volition in the past, with "would" : I decided I wouldn't call her = I decided I didn't want to call her.

That means that in your original sentence "wouldn't" is not possible because time has moved on "Not calling her" is now a past event, and you are no longer interpreted as talking about past volition (what you did or didn't want/intend to do) unless you add "I decided that..." to make it clear.

So in summary: In the first clause, will becomes would because a present prediction becomes a past prediction:
"I know she'll be working late" becomes "I knew she'd be working late".
But in the second clause a present intention "I won't call her" doesn't become a past intention - it becomes an actual past event. Thus " I won't call her..." becomes "I didn't call her".

If you want to change it back to an expression of past intention then you need a verb like "decide" first. Otherwise, the meaning is not clear.

[Alex80]

Thank you so much, Sue. I got it. Your explanation was very clear and logical. I appreciate it.

[susan53]

Alex - This reminded me that you'd already asked a question about "will" - you'll find it here and you'll see that my answer is very much in line with what I said above : Future tenses