In Modal verbs^x, Subjunctives^x, Grammar^x

Hi, Here goes the long story... Yesterday, I was talking with a girl from England who's been living here for nearly a year. She told me she was looking for an organization to join here, and on the basis of her background and beliefs I suggested she should join an Italian organization against...

Julielai wrote: Just out of curiosity, Mr. P, how do you distinguish a native speaker who's learned a non-standard form of English from a decent non-native speaker? (e.g. How can you tell if a speaker born in India, Singapore or other Asian countries is native?) Hello Julie ...

When we talk about a subjunctive construction, I think it is easier to understand it without the 'inserted clause, I would think' becasue that way one can clearly see the cause-and-effect relationship beteween the conditional clause and the main clasue. 1. If someone tells you that you...

Hello This is a garbage-like posting written by a poor English learner who has been and still now is agonized by subjunctive things which supposedly underlie English collocations. My way of understanding English grammar The English language uses two moods (indicative/subjunctive) and...

Previous threads have shown that different people hear conditional and modal verbs slightly differently. I'm happy to stand by this. I would add: Previous threads have shown that different people see conditional and modal verbs slightly differently. And also: Previous threads have...

Mr Pedantic wrote: The OED's 'may/might' entry takes us back to Fortiter's thread: 1. If that were true, he would be wearing a nasturtium in his buttonhole. 2. If that was true, why wasn't he wearing a nasturtium in his buttonhole? If we were to apply the logic of earlier posts in...