ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Would

Anonymous — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:44:30 GMT

Rotter again here.

[Si j'ai de l'argent, j'achète une nouvelle voiture ]

Now I have found out that the above has a flaw.

It should be the following.

[Si j'ai de l'argent, j'achèterai une nouvelle voiture ]

The acheter is the French word to buy. French conjugation does differ from English and j'aheterai means ' I will buy '.

The words j'achète means I buy not ' I will buy'.

[ If I have the money, I will buy a new car.]

The following past perfect is fine.

Si j'avais eu de l'argent, j'aurais acheté une voiture.

If I had had money, I would have bought a car

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I am not good at writing French. After all I make mistakes in all languages.

Re: Would

Rotter — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:32:17 GMT

Thanks Cool Breeze

On emploie le past perfect pour une action qui avait commencé dans le passé et qui est terminée à l'heure où l'on parle.

If I had had money, I would have bought a car

Si j'avais eu de l'argent, j'aurais acheté une voiture.

[ I am not sure about the French translation. There maybe some tiny errors.]

Re: Would

Cool Breeze — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:43:35 GMT

Rotter
[ Om jag har pengar, ska jag köpa en ny bil.]
{ In Swedish, the verb comes first in the main clause. Swedish is like that.}
[ If I have the money, I will buy a new car.]

Hi Rotter

Yes, of course, there are differences in the word order, but a similar auxiliary (ska, which is related to shall) and a present infinitive (köpa, buy) is needed in your sentence. And a perfect conditional is formed in the same way in English and Swedish as well:

If I had had money, I would have bought a car. = Om jag hade haft pengar, skulle jag ha köpt en bil.

I wish you a lot of success in your language acquisition efforts - French, that is!

Re: Would

Rotter — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:14:52 GMT

Tack Cool Breeze

Jag tränar 3 gånger i vecka på SATS Sports Club. Jag håller på styrketräning.

Tack vare träningen väger jag 60-62 kilos.

[ I speak fluent Swedish. I never write Swedish. So my Swedish writing is not good. People say that I speak good Swedish. I don't have to write any Swedish at work. I work with servers. You don't need Swedish or Finnish to work with servers. Nowadays I try to practice my French while training at the gym. There are some French people training with me at the gym.]

I know Swedish, English and French conditionals follow the same pattern. I am not an expert in any of those languages.

[ Si j'ai de l'argent, j'achète une nouvelle voiture ]

[ Om jag har pengar, ska jag köpa en ny bil.]

{ In Swedish, the verb comes first in the main clause. Swedish is like that.}

[ If I have the money, I will buy a new car.]

Si = If

j'ai = I have

l'argent = the money

j'achete = I will buy

une nouvelle voiture = a new car

Re: Would

Cool Breeze — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:42:40 GMT

Anonymous
1.I would weigh 75-80 kilos if I start eating chocalates, candies, etc.

Hi Rotter

I can't believe you are having problems with conditional sentences. Swedish and English are so closely related that the auxiliaries, infinitives and tenses are used in exactly the same way in both languages:

I would weigh = jag skulle väga

if I started = om jag började

Cheers

Re: Would

Tanit — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:37:54 GMT

You should thank Cool Breeze, he got the answer!
Glad it worked and welcome back.

Re: Would

Rotter — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:35:27 GMT

Thanks Tanit.

I removed cookies and restarted the computer; it worked.

I will try this procedure in the future when I get this problem.

Re: Would

Tanit — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:29:01 GMT

Anonymous
Are you able to help me the problem of logging in to the forum? Though I log in it is Anonymous. Why is this?

Hi Rotter,

Did you read my reply here ?
Have you tried deleting the cookies?

Re: Would

Marius Hancu — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:26:10 GMT

You're right, Tanit.

Re: Would

Anonymous — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:18:55 GMT

This is Rotter again.

I thank both Marius and Tanit for the replies.

Marius has corrected my typos too.

Are you able to help me the problem of logging in to the forum? Though I log in it is Anonymous. Why is this?

Re: Would

Tanit — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:10:12 GMT

Anonymous
1.I would weigh 75-80 kilos if I start eating chocalates, candies, etc. [ At the moment I weigh 60-62 kilos.]

I reckon "I would weigh 75-80 kilos if I started eating chocolates, candies, etc." would be a better sentence.

Just my opinion.

Re: Would

Marius Hancu — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:46:49 GMT

Yes, it's hypothetical, in AmE. Other versions:

I'd weigh 75-80 kilos if I start eating chocOlates, candies, etc

Should I start eating chocOlates, candies, I'd weigh 75-80 kilos.

Would

Anonymous — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:32:57 GMT

This is Rotter again. I don't know why I can't log in to the forum. This has been a problem for me for a while.

1.I would weigh 75-80 kilos if I start eating chocalates, candies, etc. [ At the moment I weigh 60-62 kilos.]

I have learnt from Marius to use the auxiliary verb 'would' in hypothetical sentences.

The first sentence indicates a hypothetical situation, in my book.

Is it correct? Does it indicate hypothetical situation?

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