What verb tense is "would?" More importantly, where is an online grammer guide where I can look in the future?

Answer 1

"Would" is the past tense of the auxiliary verb "will", which is also a MODAL verb.

Other modal verbs are:
Can
Could
May
Might
Must
Ought to
Shall
Should

http://wwwedu.ge.ch/cptic/prospective/projets/anglais/exercises/intromodal.html
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Answer 2

'would' isn't a tense, it's a modal auxiliary, which means that it combines with lexical verbs and primary auxiliaries to form various tenses, functions and aspects of verbs, e.g.,

Polite requests 'Would you like a drink?'
Second conditional 'If I knew, I would tell you'
Third conditional 'If I had known I would have told you'
Past habitual actions 'He would always smoke a cigar in the evenings'

Other modals are can/could, shall/should will/would must/may/might

Then there are the 'marginal modals' ought to, have to, needn't, dare.

d1sxeyes - "Would that he stopped doing that." is still using 'would' as a modal verb, and it has nothing to do with the past tense of 'to be'. It expresses volition, an aspect of modality if ever there was one. It isn't that archaic either - 'I wish he would stop doing that' is a modern rendition of the phrase, where 'would' expresses 'what I want someone else to do'.

Answer 3

Actually, there are several possibilities here. ALTHOUGH in most circumstances, it is a modal auxilliary, as described by other answerers, there is also the archaic expression "Would that he stopped doing that." In this case, "would" is the verb "to be" in the subjunctive mood, in the present tense.

Answer 4

it is subjective