In Modals^x, Auxiliaries^x, Inflections^x

The list isn't meant to be exhaustive or carefully arranged. Any additions, corrections or further examples would be welcomed. 1 main verbs; lexical verbs (all verbs which are not auxiliaries or modals) 2 action verbs; event verbs; dynamic verbs (a verb which can be used...

Jackson6612 wrote: Need sometimes behaves like a modal, for example 'She need know', 'She needn't know', or, in more formal English, 'She need not know'. Examples: 1: You needn't worry 2: Buying budget-priced furniture needn't mean compromising on quality or style... 3: Loneliness...

<They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are very easy and simple to learn. They have no inflections for different grammatical persons, which is also...

<They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are very easy and simple to learn. They have no inflections for different grammatical persons, which is also...

Milky wrote: <To my mind, the articles are the trickiest part of English grammar> And modals? They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are...

Hi Need is a marginal modal auxiliary, that is, it can behave as if it were a modal (bare inf and without infection), but can be used as a main verb ( to inf +inflection) too. In your sentence, need is used in modal perfect form. She need not have told him that = it was not necessary, but he...

Thank you to all those who have posted their suggestions to my little imagination game. Some have taken it very seriously thinking they would have to relearn English after the 'changes'. This was meant to be just a game, not for those wo take everything seriously, and of course in this game...

Very true, Aeolus29. There are only two tense inflections in English - the "s" for the present (only for third person singular), and the "ed" for the past. In this sense there are only two tenses. All the other verbal machinery of English depends on combining auxiliaries and/or modals with the...

1. 'Last week, I may go sailing.' I find this sentence baffling: it seems to contradict itself. The contradiction seems to reside in the opposition of 'may' and 'last week'. I myself would describe this as a conflict of context (past) and tense (non-past). How would you describe it? The...

There are twenty-eight auxiliary forms in English. (F. R. Palmer: The English Verb ) BE: is, are, am, was, were, ( "nonfinite forms" be, being, been), HAVE: has, have, had, ( "nonfinite forms" have, having), DO: do, does, did, MODALS: will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might,...