would like

 

I was once asked about this sentence:

 

*Probably, there are children, which are able to resist their classmates' impact, but I think the majority finds it hard to follow their parents words, even if they would like to.  [Actually, there was so much to look at in this sentence I forgot the problem with impact.; influence is better.]

 

We corrected this to

 

There are probably children who are able to resist their classmates' influence, but I think the majority find it hard to follow their parents' advice, even if they would like to.

 

The question, however, was not about what was wrong but about what was right:  Why is would ok in the final if-clause? 

 

I was a bit stymied by this, but the explanation is not too complicated.  To begin with, cf. http://www.geocities.com/mdmorrissey/2-5-2 and http://www.geocities.com/mdmorrissey/2-5-3.htm.

 

Would like can be a polite alternative to want:

 

I want a cup of coffee.  (rude or desperate)

I would like a cup of coffee.  (nice and polite)

 

But in our problem sentence, politeness is not the intended meaning.  It is dangerous to compare German and English, but sometimes it helps, and here you can say in German (I think!)

 

…finden es schwierig, den Rat ihrer Eltern zu folgen, auch wenn sie es möchten.

 

The difference between möchten and wollen here is the same as that between would like and want.

 

The majority find it hard to follow their parents' advice, even if they want to.

 

This is a real condition, different from a hypothetical or unreal condition:

 

The majority would find it hard to follow their parents' advice, even if they wanted to.

 

Would like in the real condition indicates what Quirk et al. call "tentative desir in polite requests, offers, or invitations" (4.64, Note c),  but here the sense is of an attenuated wish, as  in

 

I would like to be rich.

 

versus

 

I want to be rich.

 

So we seem to have three instead of the usual two degrees of hypotheticalness:

 

The majority find it hard to follow their parents' advice, even if they want to.

The majority find it hard to follow their parents' advice, even if they would like to.

The majority would find it hard to follow their parents' advice, even if they wanted to.

 

All of this trouble (!) is caused by the peculiarities of the combination of would and like, because these variations are not possible with other verbs:

 

Ants are hard to kill, even if you step on them.

*Ants are hard to kill, even if you stepped on them.

Ants would be hard to kill, even if you stepped on them.

 

But:

 

The devil is hard to kill, even if you want to.

The devil is hard to kill, even if you would like to.

The devil would be hard to kill, even if you wanted to.