Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[alexandra]

Hello

In a song by Evanescence, there's a part of the chorus that I don't understand:

"When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears..."

She's talking about something that really happened in the past ("you cried") right? And then she says "I'd wipe". This I'd is I would, wich presupposes a condition, right? As I was taught, It means that if the person had cried, she would hape wiped away the tears. But, to me, seems like it (the crying) really happened.

Please help me, I'm totally confused.

[bud]

Hi Alexandra,

Would is one of those little English words that have a lot of uses. In this example it is used to indicate a past habitual action (or state of being). Here, it is not used as a conditional.

Ex: My grandfather would cook bacon and feed it to his dog. He'd then use the bacon grease to cook eggs for himself. (Would indicates that this little scenario happened very often.)

Another way to say your example: "Whenever you cried, I wiped away all of your tears." The original is much more poetic.

Hope that helps.

[alexandra]

It's very clear bud. Thank you.

[LucentShade]

When used this way, "would" is also equivalent to "used to":

"When I was a kid, I would go to the arcade every day."
and
"When I was a kid, I used to go to the arcade every day."
both mean roughly the same thing--"would" and "used to" indicate that going to the arcade is an action that happened an unspecified number of times in the past.

[txqtpup]

Yes Alexandra, it's past tense. But I have an additional comment, sometimes songs or poetries don't follow grammars.

[alexandra]

Wow, how many answers! Thank you all

[txqtpup]

You are very much welcome, Alexandra. That's what we are here for, giving opinions and hopefully can help others in need.