What part of speech is would like

Would is an auxiliary verb - a modal auxiliary verb. We use would mainly to:

• talk about the past
• talk about the future in the past
• express the conditional mood

We also use would for other functions, such as:

• expressing desire, polite requests and questions, opinion or hope, wish and regret

Structure of would

The basic structure for would is:

Note that:

• The auxiliary verb would is invariable.

  There is only one form: would

• The main verb is usually in the base form (He would go).

Look at the basic structure again, with positive, negative and question sentences:

Note that the main verb is sometimes in the form:

• have + past participle (He would have gone)
• be + -ing (He would be going)

The main verb cannot be the to-infinitive.

We cannot say:

Be careful! Note that