What's the difference between could and will?

Could


Definition:

  • (imp.) of Can
  • (imp.) Was, should be, or would be, able, capable, or susceptible. Used as an auxiliary, in the past tense or in the conditional present.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) All mutant proteins could associate with troponin I and troponin T to form a troponin complex.
  • (2) First results let us assume that clinically silent TIAs also (in analogy to clinically silent brain infarctions) could be detected and located.
  • (3) This may have significant consequences for people’s health.” However, Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the work, said medical journals could no longer be relied on to be unbiased.
  • (4) The measure destroyed the Justice Department’s plans to prosecute whatever Guantánamo detainees it could in federal courts.
  • (5) Yet the Tory promise of fiscal rectitude prevailed in England Alexander had been in charge of Labour’s election strategy, but he could not strategise a victory over a 20-year-old Scottish nationalist who has not yet taken her finals.
  • (6) Anti-Leu 7 could not be considered as a specific marker for oligodendroglioma.
  • (7) This bone could not be degraded by human monocytes in vitro as well as control bone (only 54% of control; P less than 0.003).
  • (8) Clinical and roentgenographic criteria could not discriminate between patients with and without pneumonia, confirming the findings of previous investigations.
  • (9) Van Persie's knee injury meant that Mata could work in tandem with the delightfully nimble Kagawa, starting for the first time since 22 January.
  • (10) The small units described here could be inhibitory interneurons which convert the excitatory response of large units into inhibition.
  • (11) Although solely nociresponsive neurons are clearly likely to fill a role in the processing and signalling of pain in the conscious central nervous system, the way in which such useful specificity could be conveyed by multireceptive neurons is difficult to appreciate.
  • (12) No consistent relationship could be found between the time interval from SAH to operation and the severity of vasospasm.
  • (13) A disease in an IgD (lambda) plasmocytoma is described, where after therapy with Alkeran and prednisone a disappearance of all clinical and laboratory findings indicating an activity could be observed.
  • (14) We conclude that only one of the alleles was amplified and that either allele could be amplified with respect to both the SphI and PvuII polymorphisms.
  • (15) Even with hepatic lipase, phospholipid hydrolysis could not deplete VLDL and IDL of sufficient phospholipid molecules to account for the loss of surface phospholipid that accompanies triacylglycerol hydrolysis and decreasing core volume as LDL is formed (or for conversion of HDL2 to HDL3).
  • (16) The secondary leukemia that occurred in these patients could be distinguished from the secondary leukemia that occurs after treatment with alkylating agents by the following: a shorter latency period; a predominance of monocytic or myelomonocytic features; and frequent cytogenetic abnormalities involving 11q23.
  • (17) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (18) In addition, KM231 could detect a small amount of the antigen ganglioside in human gastric normal and cancerous mucosa and in gastric cancer cell lines by HPTLC-immunostaining.
  • (19) Measurement of urinary GGT levels represents a means by which proximal tubular disease in equidae could be diagnosed in its developmental stages.
  • (20) PMNs could be primed for PMA-triggered oxidative burst by muramyl peptide molecules (MDP) and two of its adjuvant active nonpyrogenic derivatives.

Will


Definition:

  • (v.) The choice which is made; a determination or preference which results from the act or exercise of the power of choice; a volition.
  • (v.) The power of choosing; the faculty or endowment of the soul by which it is capable of choosing; the faculty or power of the mind by which we decide to do or not to do; the power or faculty of preferring or selecting one of two or more objects.
  • (v.) The choice or determination of one who has authority; a decree; a command; discretionary pleasure.
  • (v.) Strong wish or inclination; desire; purpose.
  • (v.) That which is strongly wished or desired.
  • (v.) Arbitrary disposal; power to control, dispose, or determine.
  • (v.) The legal declaration of a person's mind as to the manner in which he would have his property or estate disposed of after his death; the written instrument, legally executed, by which a man makes disposition of his estate, to take effect after his death; testament; devise. See the Note under Testament, 1.
  • (adv.) To wish; to desire; to incline to have.
  • (adv.) As an auxiliary, will is used to denote futurity dependent on the verb. Thus, in first person, "I will" denotes willingness, consent, promise; and when "will" is emphasized, it denotes determination or fixed purpose; as, I will go if you wish; I will go at all hazards. In the second and third persons, the idea of distinct volition, wish, or purpose is evanescent, and simple certainty is appropriately expressed; as, "You will go," or "He will go," describes a future event as a fact only. To emphasize will denotes (according to the tone or context) certain futurity or fixed determination.
  • (v. i.) To be willing; to be inclined or disposed; to be pleased; to wish; to desire.
  • (n.) To form a distinct volition of; to determine by an act of choice; to ordain; to decree.
  • (n.) To enjoin or command, as that which is determined by an act of volition; to direct; to order.
  • (n.) To give or direct the disposal of by testament; to bequeath; to devise; as, to will one's estate to a child; also, to order or direct by testament; as, he willed that his nephew should have his watch.
  • (v. i.) To exercise an act of volition; to choose; to decide; to determine; to decree.

Example Sentences: