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"I should be obliged" or "I would be obliged"

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  • 12-01-2014 5:29pm
    #1
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭


    Just wondering if there is a preferred use of the above phrase when formally writing to request something to be done.

    I personally use "I would be obliged" as in sayjng: if you do what I am asking I would be grateful.

    However I have increasingly seen "I should be obliged" being used. To me this suggests that you are almost saying that you won't be grateful even though you should be!

    As I said I'm just wondering if there is a preferred use of the phrase....

    Thanks.


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    #2
    P. Breathnach
    Registered Users Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭P. Breathnach


    In decades of experience as a user of Hiberno-English I have never deviated from the "I would be obliged" formulation.

    British English is slightly more troublesome because of a weird (to us Irish) convention that shall and will as verbs have a mixed conjugation pattern - viz. I shall, you will, he/she will, etc. Some BrEnglish users would consider "I should be obliged" as the preferred formulation.

    It's discussed here: http://old.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=18844&start=0&sid=00361108d751e63918401e6b3dd479b3 (and then, as happens with QI, the chat rambles through all sorts of other matters, some of which might interest you).


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    #3
    odds_on
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,869 ✭✭✭odds_on


    In the said examples, I would consider "I should be obliged" as very formal whereas, "I would be obliged" is less formal and the form preferred in the USA.

    When I started work in a large company in Dublin in the early 60s, the formal way was common in the written form.

    Unfortunately, IMO, too many Americanizms have crept into the language on this side of the Atlantic, especially in pronunciation.


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    #4
    Evan DietrichSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 429 ✭✭Evan DietrichSmith


    odds_on wrote: »
    In the said examples, I would consider "I should be obliged" as very formal whereas, "I would be obliged" is less formal and the form preferred in the USA.

    When I started work in a large company in Dublin in the early 60s, the formal way was common in the written form.

    Unfortunately, IMO, too many Americanizms have crept into the language on this side of the Atlantic, especially in pronunciation.

    In pronounciation.

    Any examples, as I get a bit 'het up' about that stuff myself:)


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    #5
    odds_on
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,869 ✭✭✭odds_on


    Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »
    In pronounciation.

    Any examples, as I get a bit 'het up' about that stuff myself:)

    Verb: to pronounce

    Noun: pronunciation

    Pronunciation is the way a word is pronounced

    Usage

    The word pronunciation is often pronounced, by analogy with pronounce, as if the second syllable rhymed with bounce. This is not correct in standard English: the standard pronunciation has the second syllable rhyming with dunce. The correct spelling is pronunciation, never pronounciation.

    http://www.oxforddictionaries.com


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    #6
    Evan DietrichSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 429 ✭✭Evan DietrichSmith


    odds_on wrote: »
    Verb: to pronounce

    Noun: pronunciation

    Pronunciation is the way a word is pronounced

    Usage

    The word pronunciation is often pronounced, by analogy with pronounce, as if the second syllable rhymed with bounce. This is not correct in standard English: the standard pronunciation has the second syllable rhyming with dunce. The correct spelling is pronunciation, never pronounciation.

    http://www.oxforddictionaries.com

    :o

    Oh dear, that was a bigo typo by me , threw you right off my point.

    Sorry about that, what I wanted to know was what Americanisms in pronunciation have crept in?


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    #7
    odds_on
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,869 ✭✭✭odds_on


    Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »
    :o

    Oh dear, that was a bigo typo by me , threw you right off my point.

    Sorry about that, what I wanted to know was what Americanisms in pronunciation have crept in?

    How about, for example, the two probably most used:-
    process
    progress

    And on a slightly different tack:-
    gotten for got


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    #8
    Evan DietrichSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 429 ✭✭Evan DietrichSmith


    odds_on wrote: »
    How about, for example, the two probably most used:-
    process
    progress

    And on a slightly different tack:-
    gotten for got

    Right...
    any context for the ..got.. gotten business,any sentences as examples as I haven't come across this.


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    #9
    odds_on
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,869 ✭✭✭odds_on


    Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »
    Right...
    any context for the ..got.. gotten business,any sentences as examples as I haven't come across this.
    Try a search on this forum and you will find a discussion on "Is gotten a proper word".

    The Oxford Online Dictionary says it is an archaic form of the past participle of the verb to get. However, I do not recall, as a school-going child, having heard it nor being taught it.


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    #10
    Mountjoy Mugger
    Registered Users Posts: 4,486 ✭✭✭Mountjoy Mugger


    Ill-gotten gains?


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    #11
    Merry Prankster
    Registered Users Posts: 261 ✭✭Merry Prankster


    tempnam wrote: »
    Just wondering if there is a preferred use of the above phrase when formally writing to request something to be done.

    Use the verb should to express an obligation, a necessity, or a prediction. Use would to express a wish or a customary action.

    http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/shouldgloss.htm

    P.S. Does anyone know how to change the text for a link? Cheers.


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    #12
    Evan DietrichSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 429 ✭✭Evan DietrichSmith


    odds_on wrote: »
    Try a search on this forum and you will find a discussion on "Is gotten a proper word".

    The Oxford Online Dictionary says it is an archaic form of the past participle of the verb to get. However, I do not recall, as a school-going child, having heard it nor being taught it.

    Thank you for that, I can assure you 'gotten' is alive and well.

    I think 'had' is the vital word there.

    As in ' The man showed the goods he got at the shop'

    And ' the man showed the goods he had gotten at the shop'

    Where the ****e comes in is when people start saying ' The man showed the goods he had got at the shop'


    Not exactly a scientific synopsis, but ,I think describes the issue


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    #13
    nomdeboardie
    Registered Users Posts: 2,004 ✭✭✭nomdeboardie


    Merry Prankster wrote: »
    ... P.S. Does anyone know how to change the text for a link? Cheers.
    Do you mean like: link ?

    If so:
    1) Type the desired word (I've just used "link" here)
    2) Select it
    3) Click on the "Insert Link" icon (globe-like graphic with overlaid chain links at lower right)
    4) Paste the desired URL into the text box that pops up
    5) Click on "OK"


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