By Conditionals, Dialects

Have to, on the other hand, does not have a strong deontic role. On the bare surface of it I take it as totally crazy (in AmE)! And yet, Deontically, must obliges the subject of the sentence to do something (you must be home before 9 o’clock). Have to, on the other hand, does not...

Good luck with the fundraising Here's a couple bacteriologists, containerboards, discourageable, rebroadcasting, ribonucleosides, ribonucleotides, subdistrictingantiobscenities, bacteriologies, bacteriologist, biconditionals, containerboard, contrabandists, counterordering, crossbreeding,...

Thank you for having pointed this out: In English, the past is often used instead of the past perfect, so there is a reading of that if clause in which was can be taken to mean had been, thus indicating the past meaning that I think you are talking about, but that creates an ambiguity, so I did...

In my dialect, Pieanne, Yes. If it's a conditional, Had they had it in stock, they would have . . . . If they had it in stock, they would have. . . .

JTT wrote: You couldn't have done more than glanced at the box "May/might", at the 'commnet' site, Mr P. If you had, you'd have noticed the glaring inconsistencies that show "that different people DO NOT hear conditional and modal verbs slightly differently. No need for all caps, JTT. Please use...

Thanks for the links, Casi. Very interesting. It wouldn't surprise me if there were something in what you say about dialect variation. Previous threads have shown that different people hear conditional and modal verbs slightly differently. And it's no advantage to MrX to feel 'pastness' in...