company profits

[gmat009]

The company announced that its profits declined much less in the second quarter than analysts had expected it to and its business will improve in the second half of the year.
(A) had expected it to and its business will improve
(B) had expected and that its business would improve
(C) expected it would and that it will improve its business
(D) expected them to and its business would improve
(E) expected and that it will have improved its business

Can someone plz. explain which option is better A or B.
When do we prefer to use "will" and when do we use "would"

[Tryingmybest]

To me its B
had expected must be used as this happens first in the past before announcement.

announced that X and that Y should be used .

So I ll go for B.

OA Plz?

[gmat009]

To me its B
had expected must be used as this happens first in the past before announcement.

announced that X and that Y should be used .

So I ll go for B.

OA Plz?

My question is difference between "will" and "would" and which one to prefer

[Tryingmybest]

Will and would depends on the tense of the sentence.

announced if followed by would be more appropriate.

[Stacey Koprince]

I received a PM asking me to reply, specifically to address the "will" vs "would" issue.

Think of "will" as a certain (or as certain as you can get) indication and "would" as an uncertain indication when talking about the future. This is "dumbing things down" a little, but it is the easiest way to think about this in terms of the test. Will = definite (or almost definite), would = maybe (reasonable uncertainty).

The company is essentially expressing a hope that the business will improve - they can't be certain (or near-certain). As such, we should express it as "The company announced that its business would improve next year." The company expects it to... they may have a lot of confidence in themselves, but it may or may not really happen.

Vs. The sun will rise tomorrow. Yeah, it could implode before then and never rise tomorrow (doomsday party, anyone?). But it's probably going to, right?

[rohangupta83]

@ Stacey

What is the difference between ''can'' and ''could''?

[Stacey Koprince]

Generally, could functions as the past tense of can, but "could" can also have some other uses - eg, to indicate a suggestion or some kind of tentativeness.

et's try some sample sentences to see.

I can play tennis. --> literally, I know how to play

I can play tennis with you tomorrow. --> I'm available to play tomorrow

We can play tennis tomorrow. --> I can play and the implication is that you've already told me you can play, so I now know that we can both play tomorrow.

Contrast the above with:

My grandmother could play tennis. --> This is now in the past. As a blanket statement, it probably means she is no longer alive. Or I could say "My grandmother could not play tennis last summer because she sprained her ankle." The statement is now confined to just a certain period of time in the past and implies that she is able to play tennis again now.

We could play tennis tomorrow. --> We're not in past tense anymore, and I'm also not making a statement about something I'm completely sure of (I only know that I can play tennis tomorrow). Instead, I'm suggesting that we play tomorrow... but I don't know whether you can. So there's a tentativeness - I don't know that we will play tennis; instead, I suggest that we might be able to.

Person 1: I want to exercise. Person 2: You could play tennis. --> Again, we're not in past tense anymore. Person 2 is making a suggestion to person 1; again, tentativeness comes into play. Person 2 is not merely saying that Person 1 has the ability to play tennis (that would use "can") but that, if Person 1 wants to, s/he could play tennis to get some exercise.

Make sense?