ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: conditional

Marius Hancu — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:03:03 GMT

>If I have money, I could use it to lend it to my friend

Not correct.

Hypothetical/unreal "could" requires hypothetical/unreal ("had" or "should") in the condition, most of time:

If I had money, I could use it to lend it to my friend.

Should I have money, I could use it to lend it to my friend. [BrE

READ:

http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/conditionalintro.html

e.g.

http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/presentconditional.htmll

Only then we talk again.

You're asking lots of questions, without reading your grammar first. Bad policy.

And identify yourself (sign up). I don't quite like replying to anon.

Re: conditional

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:19:49 GMT

Thank you very much.

I guess googling the books would be more reliable than just 'googling'.

Can anyone answer this?

1.Why is that we can't say "If I have money, I could use it lend it to my friend" but can say "If I have money, I can use it to lend it to my friend'?

Why we can not say this?

If I have money, I could use it to lend it to my friend.

But we can say this:

If I have money, I can use it to lend it to my friend.

How do the answers to the above either contradict or strengthen the validity of sentences below?

If you have mnney, I can/could use it to lend it to my friend. -- Setting aside of two "it's" being inappropriate might be good I think.

Re: conditional

Marius Hancu — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:36:52 GMT

Example:

Do a search at Google Books

http://books.google.com

for

"can you lend it to me?"

(quotation marks are important)

and you'll get many examples of use in books, as you see in the above.

Re: conditional

Marius Hancu — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:28:43 GMT

>can you lend me it?

Poor English again: BAD ORDER.

See the hits at Google Books, use the site, you really seem you need it:

2 on "can you lend me it?

104 on "can you lend it to me?" [this is the good one

http://books.google.com/books?q=%22can+you+lend+it+to+me%3F%22&btnG=Search+Books

Re: conditional

Marius Hancu — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:24:21 GMT

> "If I have money, I could use it lend it to my friend"

This is poor English, not idiomatic, that repetition of "it" is very bad.

At Google Books:

Your search - "could use it lend it" - did not match any documents.

Clear enough?

Re: conditional

Marius Hancu — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:58:04 GMT

>To me, 'is likely' denotes present time

No, it looks into the future, as any forecast would, and this is one.

Simple present or even present perfect are used in constructions which refer to the future.

Tense and time are not the same.

Re: conditional

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:42:44 GMT

Hi, Thank you. I have three more questions.

1.Why is that we can't say "If I have money, I could use it lend it to my friend" but can say "If I have money, I can use it to lend it to my friend'?

I think those are the same forms except the that one or those ones used before are in question forms and I don't think it makes difference.

You wrote:

This is due to there not being the partitive case in English.

What do you mean by "partitive case"?

Also, if you don't mind,

2. Why are they both acceptable?

If I have money, It is likely that I will be using it to lend it to my friend.

If I have money, I will be using it to lend it to my friend.

To me, 'is likely' denotes present time, whereas 'will' denotes future time; and I feel in order to form a correct first conditional, one should use a future tense in the main clause.

3. Why is it wrong?

If you have money, can you lend me it?

Looks the same as:

If you have money, can you lend me the money?

Re: conditional

Cool Breeze — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:26:45 GMT

Anonymous
Is this possible?

If you have money, can (not could??) lend it to me?

Only the version above is correct. Both can and could are grammatical but I would say: ... could you lend me some. Otherwise I get the impression you are asking for all of my money. This is due to there not being the partitive case in English.

conditional

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:18:55 GMT

Hi,

Is the only modal that can be used here for this sentence (looks to be a first conditional) is the modal "can" and not 'could'?

If you have money, can (not could??) you lend me it? -- To me, the 'could' is more tentative and perhaps more polite.

Is this possible?

If you have money, can (not could??) lend it to me?