By Clauses, Auxiliaries

Re: Would

Hi RotterYes, of course, there are differences in the word order, but a similar auxiliary (ska, which is related to shall) and a present infinitive (köpa, buy) is needed in your sentence. And a perfect conditional is formed in the same way in English and Swedish as well:If I had had money, I...

Re: conditional

Thank you, Mr. M. Then, what are these ones I wrote? They have if-clauses and what look to be resultant clauses, and also, they seem to be good, sensible sentences. All first conditional?? If I hear from you before I leave, I would call you when I get home. If I get a raise this month, I...

Analyzing WH-questions the H&P CGEL way

Hi!I am reading Huddleston & Pullum's CGEL, and I've run into a problem. I don't understand how to analyze WH-questions with both subject-auxiliary inversion and . Couldn't somebody help me out?Let us take the sentence What did the Captain say? as an example. Here the Captain...

Re: What did he say? What was it he said?

The auxiliary verb carries the tense. did shows the past. (Otherwise it would be do or does.) You can't indicate tense twice in the same clause. (*What did I said?) The main verb shows the past tense ONLY when no auxiliary verb is present to do the job! (I said so.) CJ

open conditional

Hi, What is an open conditional? Is that another name for first conditional or what? Does that mean the element of hypothetical doesn't exist in an open conditional or can it accommodate both hypothetical and real? But I see cases where the verb or auxiliary verb 'did' or 'did...

Re: a passive question

I don't know anything about those villagers and what happened to them, so I can't tell you whether the sentence is true. If the villagers really were taken from their houses, and so on, then it's true. That is, I don't know if those words correspond to reality. I think...

Verbs

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...

Re: 'than' in a comparative sentence

You can use the full form, the 'pro' form, or just the pronoun. In the last case, note that isolated subject pronouns after than are often expressed as object pronouns in informal situations. The 'pro' form is the echo of the operator (modal or auxiliary) -- do if the first...

objective meaning Vs. subjective meaning

Recently, I've heard this sort of theory so I'm gonna share this with you and want to hear your opinions as well. It's about categorizing the language into "Objective or Subjective (not she, her ..)" depending on the meaning. 1. Objective meaning : do (perfect tense...

Re: Proficiency alongside "poverty".

Do existed in Old English more than a thousand years ago as a regular verb and meant to cause. It is impossible to say who introduced it to English. It's use as an auxiliary in questions and negations was established in Shakespeare's day when it was correct to say bothI know not himandI...