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A comment on The second largest version of Wikipedia is written mostly by one bot. Parent comment

Re:The second largest version of Wikipedia is written mostly... by BiteCode_dev on Tuesday February 25, 2020 @04:00AM (#22411772)
How would you express "would like"?

"I don’t want to go" and "I would like not to go" express different things.

One is expressing opposition right now, the other one is expressing desire or even a request, potentially while the action is already engaged. The first one is definitive, the second one is wishful thinking or negotiation.

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Re:The second largest version of Wikipedia is written mostly... by andrewzah on Tuesday February 25, 2020 @08:11AM (#22412871)
I don’t see any practical difference other than using more polite, indirect language. The effect of “would like not to” is the same in the end with opposition.

I don’t think there’s a 1:1 translation of “would like not to”. I’d probably say something like “it’d be good if I did / didn’t do X”. Which is less direct than the equivalent “I do / don’t want to do X”.

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