In Modals^x, American English^x, Auxiliaries^x

Aside: Americans, does this comment vex you? "The 'Americanization' of British English is suggested by the modal auxiliary profiles: here British English appears to follow American English, where the decline of modals is further advanced both in the 1961 and the 1991 data. In...

Milky wrote: Anonymous wrote: In the sentence, "She has to eat salad every day," would "has to" be a helping verb for the action verb "eat?" Initially "to eat" looks like an infinitive, but isn't "has to" another way of saying "must," which would make it a helping verb? Thanks! ...

Anonymous wrote: In the sentence, "She has to eat salad every day," would "has to" be a helping verb for the action verb "eat?" Initially "to eat" looks like an infinitive, but isn't "has to" another way of saying "must," which would make it a helping verb? Thanks! "Have/has/had (to)" is not...

1. Use of present perfect tense and simple past tense Speakers of American English generally use the present perfect tense (have/has + past participle) far less than speakers of British English. In spoken American English it is very common to use the simple past tense as an alternative in...