will/would

My parents wouldn't allow me to go to the party.

My parents won't allow me to go to the party.

What's the difference between the two?

Grammar Geek wrote:

wouldn't - the party was in the past

Not necessarily, IMO:

Should our neighbours organize a party, my parents wouldn't allow me to go. They dislike them very much.

With additional context, "would" can be for a hypothetical party, yes.

As a stand-alone sentence, "would" is for the past.

As a stand-alone sentence, "would" is for the past.

Actually, to split hairs, it's "would not" that's for the past.   It gives the sense of "refused to".

My parents wouldn't allow me to go to the party.

Without the not (n't), I don't get the sense that it's a past tense.

My parents would allow me to go to the party sounds more like the hypothetical present than the past to me --sticking with the idea of a "stand-alone sentence".  (As always, I grant that dressing this up with more words to give it another context could change the sense of the sentence.)

I wonder if there are any other cases in English where the tense we "feel" depends on the presence of a negative.  This one's strange.

CJ