By Inflections, Simple past

Alienvoord wrote:Does English even have a past subjunctive? It was agreed six months ago that the house, come what may, was to be decorated inside and out before the end of June. "was" is identical in form to the simple past. So why do some people call it the past subjunctive?Hi...

Regarding "while" with simple past, e.g., "while I sat": The English simple past does not have to express an event, i.e., does not have to be 'punctual'. This is one of the more difficult things for learners to grasp, especially if their native language distinguishes through inflections...

Hello Xavier, you're right of course: Communication is one of the tasks of language. The Grammar is "late": Language follows special patterns (word order, inflection, cases, conjugation, etc) - language has to follow those patterns as without them, communication wouldn't be possible. The only...

For my home grammar assignment I am to "describe the form of the verb phrases in the following sentences (:finiteness, tense, modality, aspect, voice): 1. The house had been painted a bright red before it was sold. 2. Pigeons will be nesting on the statue's head. 3. It is good to have seen them...

In former times, questions were built by a so called 'inversion', that means Subject and Verb of the actual sentence changed positions: Examples: You like tea. -----> Question: Like you tea? He likes tea. -----> Question: Likes he tea? This was possible as word order did not loom very large,...