In Tenses^x, Constructions^x

It's a mighty feast, and one that I'm still trying to digest, so my responses may seem short and/or out of form, but they're not. I'd rather work from where you three have left off, then go back into the discussion and dredge up old hat, sort to speak. RE: These constructions are capable of...

At risk of becoming a 'participle bore', some further thoughts: 1. . Take these variants: a) After I had eaten the apple, I fixed the bike. b) After my eating the apple, the bike was fixed. c) Having eaten the apple, I fixed the bike. d) After eating the apple, I fixed the bike. It...

Hello Casi Hats off to your analysis! Very nice work indeed. Your notion of is something of an enigma. It is the most obviously dangly of structures, when it does dangle; yet its form is seemingly ambiguous. Again, hats off to your analysis! Some fine disentangling. MrP

Hello MrP History of English Gerunds (quoted from OED) The most notable development of the verbal nouns in form of -ing is its use as a gerund, i.e. a substantive with certain verbal functions, particularly those of being qualified by an adverb instead of an adjective, and of governing an...

Munchun The past tense of "wish" is the only one that I know for the politeness past tense other than that "wonder". Some times English speakers use it in a sense of the present tense. An example is "Did you wish me to dance with you? If you like it, I'll do" The question you newly raised...

First, let me make a few observations. 1. All wishes are counterfactual. It makes no sense to wish for what you already have. The Queen of England does not say, "I wish I were the Queen of England". If I am six feet tall, I do not say, "I wish I were six feet tall". So every wish is a wish for...

Hello Guest 1. Parallelism = the use of parallel constructions, e.g. 'I came, I saw, I conquered.' Here the construction is repeated 3 times, but the meaning is different each time. 2. Restatement = saying the same thing again or in a new way, e.g. 'I thought about the Virginia...

This is not a present perfect. It is a modal construction; the modal is "may". In this context, "may"* means "it is possible that ... ". Thus, "We believe they may reach the island on a raft" is "We believe that it is possible that they will reach the island on a raft". And "We believe...

Pilita, I think your problem is that you are inconsistent. Some of your sentences are perfectly correct, but then you make elementary mistakes in other sentences that seem to show that you haven't totally understood why your best sentences are as good as they are! For example, your...

Hi, Miriam. I have a few questions. I would appreciate your comments on them when you have the time. (It's nothing urgent. I don't want to interrupt your dialog with Pastel.) 1. > Did you really intend to include the verbs "wish", "order", and "urge"? They are the only ones in the list...