By Auxiliaries, Inflections

Hi, An enemy that is being detained does not (have/has) any rights. The writer of this sentence needs to have a look at the Geneva Conventions. Have = plural has = singular The inflection is in the auxiliary 'does'. Use 'have ' as the base verb.. Does the -have- refer to the...

The list isn't meant to be exhaustive or carefully arranged. Any additions, corrections or further examples would be welcomed. 1 main verbs; lexical verbs (all verbs which are not auxiliaries or modals) 2 action verbs; event verbs; dynamic verbs (a verb which can be used in...

Check out this link: http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com/page/adverbs_of_frequency_positionFrom a communicative standpoint, if you use either order, many native speakers probably wouldn't notice the switch, and the meaning would be the same unless you used inflection to emphasize the...

Jackson6612 wrote:Need sometimes behaves like a modal, for example 'She need know', 'She needn't know', or, in more formal English, 'She need not know'. Examples: 1: You needn't worry 2: Buying budget-priced furniture needn't mean compromising on quality or style... 3: Loneliness can be...

The answer to your question depends on how the answerer defines passive. As I is not the object of any action in the sentences, many think that the sentences are active and the verbs prepared and finished are adjectival. However, structurally the sentences are in the passive voice as both contain...

<They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are very easy and simple to learn. They have no inflections for different grammatical persons, which is also...

<They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are very easy and simple to learn. They have no inflections for different grammatical persons, which is also...

Milky wrote:<To my mind, the articles are the trickiest part of English grammar> And modals?They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are very easy and...

MrPedantic wrote:It interests me that some modern languages have at least the appearance of greater simplicity (e.g. the loss of inflection) than their counterparts of 900 years ago. This seems counter-intuitive: you would expect a language to evolve towards (not from) complexity.Hello MrPAs far...

HiNeed is a marginal modal auxiliary, that is, it can behave as if it were a modal (bare inf and without infection), but can be used as a main verb ( to inf +inflection) too.In your sentence, need is used in modal perfect form.She need not have told him that = it was not necessary, but he told...