Future in the Past Simple

How to build it

• Affirmative: would + base form: She said she would write the letter. Short form: I’d, she’d, they’d.
• Negative: would not (wouldn’t) + base form: I knew she wouldn’t write the letter.
• Question: Would + subject + base form: Would she write the letter? — but usually it sits inside a sentence about the past, with normal word order: I wondered whether she would write the letter.
• It looks exactly like the conditional would (I would help if I could); the context tells them apart.

When to use it

• Reported speech after a past reporting verb, when the original had will: “I’ll call you,” she said → She said she would call me.
• What someone thought, knew, hoped or expected about the future at a past moment: I was sure you’d understand. We hoped it wouldn’t rain.
• Telling a story and looking ahead from a past moment: They met in 2010. Ten years later they would get married.
• Past refusals with wouldn’t: The door wouldn’t open. He wouldn’t listen to me.

Examples

• He promised he would be on time.
• I didn’t think the exam would be so hard.
• She knew they would never see each other again.
• We asked whether the shop would be open on Sunday.
• My grandmother said it would snow, and she was right.

Common mistakes

• Keeping will after a past verb: He said he will come → He said he would come. Ukrainian keeps the future (сказав, що прийде), English usually shifts it back. will is possible only when the event is still in the future now: He said he’ll come tomorrow (and tomorrow hasn’t come yet).
• would in time and if clauses: She said she would call when she would arrive → She said she would call when she arrived. As with will, the time clause takes a past form.
• Confusing it with used to: When I was a child, I would walk to school means a past habit, not the future in the past.
• Forgetting was going to: for past plans and intentions, was/were going to is often more natural: I was going to call you, but I forgot.

The passive

would + be + V3: She said the letter would be written by Friday. Common in reported speech and stories: We were told the flight would be delayed. Nobody knew the house would be sold so quickly.