In Tenses^x, Modals^x

They certainly seem correct to me. Perhaps it's the idiom happen to that's bothering you. If you happen to have money = If, by chance, it turns out that you have money CJ

Hi, In part of the final post of the thread started by Anon named "Nagging conditional problem", Marius wrote this: If you happen to have money (with/on you), could/would you lend me some? [this is more about present or: Should you have money (with/on you), could/would...

Hi, I think I have asked a similar question before and Marius supplied me with helpful answers and references (?) but after looking at those sources, I could not still figure out what to make of these nagging questions. Could you help me? I went to the Google Book Search and think I have...

Hi, 1.Mr. Wordy wrote this response for a thread named "conditional": 1. The priests had to look after their own fellowship with God if they were to minister to others -- suggests that they probably did look after their own fellowship with God and consquently did minister to...

Hi, I'm really enjoying this. You're making me think. I'm going to take your points out of sequence. I think I'm still replying to your post; if I misrepresent what you're saying, please correct me. First, the summary of what I'm going to say: A lot depends on theory,...

Hi, Please tell me what conditional these are and it they are correct If we take a look at the table of contents, it tell us what topics are included and on what page the information is located. -- Is this concern with what some people seem to call 'universal truth' and thus, a...

Yes. I wrote: I was sick, so I couldn't play tennis. -- this past 'could' doesn't indicate any intention but indicates his ability; but there is any tense to use to reflect that, as it seems to me. Is this one of the limitations of the English language: don't have a...

Hi, I think a person is usually taught that the modal 'can' denotes ability, like the ability to do something, eg, taking a heavy object to a place; and 'could' can be used like 'can' similarly in some situations but ususally denotes a person's intention along with...

"Might" is the past tense of "may" but in today's English that differenciation has almost completely been lost and now they are usually used interchangeablely. One place "might" is still taught as the past of "may" is in reported speech.

Yes. The modals are sometimes called "defective verbs", meaning that they cannot be conjugated in all the tenses available for other verbs. If you need the subtleties of those tenses, you have to switch to some other verb or equivalent expression. (Recall that a sentence marked with...