By Modals, Regards

Hello Goldmund Really? I just put what I'd learned from my grammar books and dictionaries. I'd like to hear opinions from native speakers. But frankly speaking, I've learned through the experience here that it is tough to know exact senses of such things like modals and subjunctive moods,...

I had been thinking about those sentences for some time but I found myself incompetent. First of all I'm not sure about the distinction between . You had in mind some temporal factor. Well, I got to go now.　Thank you -- so much -- for discussions. With my best regards,

Dear Milky The core meaning is not the etymology? Kind regards Goldmund

JTT ... we regard modal verbs as unmarked for tense What you are (or the book is) saying is just about epistemic modals. Some root modals like 'will' (futurity) or 'can' (ability) have tense finiteness. So your saying cannot be generalized for all modals. I agree most epistemic modals are free...

Paco: By the way I have a feeling that English 'now' (in the linguistic sense, not in the physical sense) is not instantaneous, but it seems to occupy some span in the time that flows from the past to the future. Otherwise I cannot understand the usage of the present progressive tense. JTT: I...

Paco: How about the case of "I would have saved 50 cents if I hadn't bought that popsicle yesterday"? Do you insist that ESLs should believe has a sense of future in this case too? Paco, take a step back, take a deep breath and look once more at your sentence. There is the addition of "have...

Thank you JTT for correcting me. If I may ask, would you please have a look at my ohter posts entitled "fill in the blanks" and "grammar exercises" ? Best regards, Hela

Dear teachers, Here is another exercise; would you please correct it? Replace the words in bold. “Wonderful, it’s Sunday and a) not necessary for me to get up at 7 o’clock. b) I’ll possibly stay in bed a bit longer although c) I think the children are probably awake now and I’ll d) be obliged...

JTT: Knowledgeable language sources defend it because it is a natural part of language. Grammar isn't prescription foisted upon the users of language. Some people use this form in their speech, some don't. Some use double modals, some don't. This doesn't make it wrong as Mr P suggests. Here,...

Thank you Jim for your help! I'll study that carefully and who knows I might come back with other questions on modals... Kind regards, Hela