By Clauses, Modal auxiliaries

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...

Hello, Dr. E.T. Babalola! I'm still uncertain of the third example you've given here. Are you fully convinced that the italicised part of the third example is a non-finite clause? As I know, clauses can be divided into two kinds, namely finite clauses and non-finite clauses. The distinguishing...

Cool Breeze wrote:Hi Belly1) You could use to get as well. Both the full infinitive (to get) and the plain/bare infintive (get) are correct after do in sentences like yours. There is an old song All I Have To Do Is Dream. It could just as well be All I Have To Do Is To Dream. 2) Not one is...

Hi Belly1) You could use to get as well. Both the full infinitive (to get) and the plain/bare infintive (get) are correct after do in sentences like yours. There is an old song All I Have To Do Is Dream. It could just as well be All I Have To Do Is To Dream. 2) Not one is idiomatic and...

Kilimanjaro wrote: Hello Cool Breeze, This sentence is taken from Michael SWAN's Practical English Usage. He says "might" can be used in such contextsHi KilimanjaroYes, I know it's from that book. You mentioned it in a previous post. I didn't say it was right or wrong in my opinion. I said I...

Milky wrote: "I'd like to can swim" is ungrammatical. In English, modal auxiliaries like can and must are disallowed in infinitival clauses." That is a statement that is true of any variety of English with which I am familiar. Prescriptivists and descriptivists are often going to agree that...

Would this be seen as a prescriptivist statement or a descriptivist one? "I'd like to can swim" is ungrammatical. In English, modal auxiliaries like can and must are disallowed in infinitival clauses."

Peaceblinkfriend wrote:Hi,If I hadn't passed my exam, I wouldn't have gone to Cancun. = This is a conditional clause and in this instance, it is being used to talk about something that might have happened in the past, but did not in fact happen. In this sort of conditional clause, you use the...

Jackson6612 wrote:I hope this sentence is correct. Your teacher may have discussed the sequence of tenses. Can we use might in place of may? If we cannot do that then please let me know the reason. Your teacher might have discussed the sequence of tenses. Hi Jackson 6612All defective...

One such grammatical distinction causing much confusion is the use of the modal auxiliaries ‘may’ and ‘might’. When used in the present tense, the two modals are almost transposable, as the difference between the two is merely a very small degree of certainty. However, it has become common...