student asking question

Can I change "would" to "can"? Or is it impossible because the certainty of the speaker is different?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Great question. Gramatically speaking you could change "would" to "can" and the sentence would still make sense, however, the meaning would be different. As you said in your answer, the level of certainty is affected by the change. "Can", in this sentence would show the possibility of something happening, while "would" expresses certainty and intent that something will happen. Ex: Smoking can cause cancer. (Possible) Ex: Smoking would cause cancer. (Certain)

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