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In English, we often use "would" to directly make the sentence hypothetical,
but how would you do this in Japanese? I only know how to use conditionals for
this, but It doesn't give me the same feeling...

For example:

> You would make a good actor.
>
> 役者になったら、上手と思う。
>
> (If you were to become an actor, you would be good at it.)

Example 2:

> This sort of thing would be popular in Canada.
>
> カナダにあったら、こんな奴は人気だ。 (If this was in Canada, it would be popular.)

Can you see what I mean? I can't get the same meaning from Japanese...

How would I go about expressing these example sentences?
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2017-07-16T05:13:09.220
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2017-08-07T20:41:36.317
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word-choice conditionals
Can you speak hypothetically without conditionals
I believe using one of the forms だろう or でしょう would convey the idea that you
want.

> You would make a good actor  
>  上手な役者になるでしょう。

and

> This sort of thing would be popular in Canada.  
>  こんなやつはカナダに人気でしょう。
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2017-07-16T05:27:29.363
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> In english we often use "would" to directly make the sentence hypothetical,
> but how would you do this in Japanese?
>
> You would make a good actor. 役者になったら、上手と思う (If you were to become an actor,
> you would be good at it)  
>  This sort of thing would be popular in Canada. カナダにあったら、こんな奴は人気だ (If this
> was in Canada, it is popular)
>
> I can't get the same meaning from Japanese...

**For the conclusion clause:** だろう／でしょう adds the sense of _assumption_. I find
these are closer to English 'will' (でしょう is polite). These can be used in the
_conclusion_ clause but not a grammar requirement. For the uncertainty of
'would', we say かもしれない.

**For the premise clause:** When we especially have a need to say it's
_hypothesis_ _**contradicts an actual fact**_ , we do that by adding some
expressions. For example,

> **もし万一** 、役者になる（ような）ことが **あったとしたら** ／ **あるとしたら** 、いい役者に **なる** と思うよ。

The above sentence means that it's very rare case but still possible. Here, なる
for the future. Both **あった and ある works for the future** in the premise
clause.

> **もし万一** 、役者になる（ような）ことが **あったとしたら** 、いい役者に **なった** ／ **なってた** と思うよ。

This is for the past. So, it's something about **no longer possible.**

_Cf:_ In Japanese, we use the helping verb た not only to express the past but
also the sense of completion in any tense. Not like English has the past tense
form and the perfect form separately.
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