In Modals^x, Tenses^x

1 I need some money gt I met Kelly She needed some money She said she needed some money Also I met kelly She needs some money She said she needs some money All of this is fine 2 If I had the money I would give it to you gt I met Bob He didn t have the money If he had had the money he would have...

Kilimanjaro wrote Hello Cool Breeze This sentence is taken from Michael SWAN s Practical English Usage He says might can be used in such contextsHi KilimanjaroYes I know it s from that book You mentioned it in a previous post I didn t say it was right or wrong in my opinion I said I wouldn t use...

Why didn t you take it There was no one around 1 You might could have stolen it lt You had a chance to steal it you had the ability to steal it you were allowed to steal it but you didn t were allowed is a less probable paraphrase An additional paraphrase is You should have stolen it Why didn t...

What s the past of could Aarrgghh could is a past form already There are two series of forms to consider with modals The interactions and combinations are the subject of entire books So in a way a modal like may has two pasts might and may have To make things even more complicated most modals...

why can t we expect the third sentence Be patient The real answer to this doesn t come until the end of this post Because modals don t work the same way as other verbs especially in the perfect tenses A modal perfect tense is in many ways equivalent to a past tense The simple past of the modal in...

CalifJim wrote 1 In those days a man might be hanged they might hang a man for stealing a sheep No difference in meaning 2 In those days a man could be hanged they could hang a man for stealing a sheep No difference in meaning 1 Both have the simple past of may 2 Both have the simple past of can...

Some grammarians do not recognize the modals as ever having any tense at all I say that for the sake of completeness As it happens I don t subscribe to that theory Now to the question 1 In those days a man might be hanged they might hang a man for stealing a sheep No difference in meaning 2 In...

Let s not forget that much formality in English is not based on word meanings We also create fomality by using the past tense of verbs and what are traditionally called the past tense of modal auxiliaries

Milky wrote He has to go and He must go gt Well I guess that would be part of the mastering part of the language i e the complex part It s easy for anyone to claim that English is not complex or is much simpler than many other languages if he she avoids talking about mastering the language I am...

lt lt Before I could say anything more Holmes had rushed off towards the station gt gt This is the normal sequence of tenses isn t it And yet it seems to have the logical characteristics of the before past perfect patterns we ve been looking at Curious Good example I ll have to think about it...