would for Japanese speakers — pronunciation and common errors

Pronunciation

Japanese phonology lacks the /w/ phoneme before high-back vowels; this causes the /wʊd/ onset to shift to the unrounded /ɯ/, often resulting in /ɯdːo/.

Grammar

Japanese does not mark a morphosyntactic distinction between future and non-future events using auxiliaries like 'would' for the past-of-future; the non-past form of verbs covers both, leading learners to use 'will' where backshifting is required.

Examples

• I would like a cup of tea, please.
• If I had enough money, I would travel around the world for a year.