In Modals^x, Clauses^x, English grammar^x

Let's spread out the issue a little bit: ____ O ____ Type 2. Basic forms . a. If we caught the 10 o'clock train, we would (could, might, etc.) get there by lunch-time. b. If I came into a fortune, I would give up smoking. c. If I knew how it worked, I could...

Rahul Malhotra wrote: but, i dont know why so many books on english grammar says that modals should not be used in the condition of conditionals and can only be used in the result . Often, this is caused by this situation where the above rule is correct: ---------- would have for...

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...

Anonymous wrote: I have seen similar putative sentences. "I am suprised that he should feel lonely."(1) "I am suprised that he feels lonely." I don't remember the exact sentences in Quirk's "A Comprehensive English Grammar". I wonder if the first sentence can be written as "I will be suprised...

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...

Mary Ansell's on-line text, English Grammar: Explanations and Exercises , explains some of the differences among these auxiliaries: 3. Can and Could The modal auxiliary can is most often used in the Simple conjugation. The most important meaning of can and could is to be able to....

Summarising: Three ways of looking at it. Extracts from the Geoffrey Leech article, " />English Grammar in Conversation . View 1: Spoken English has no grammar at all: it is grammatically inchoate. (That view) ...does not need to be taken seriously, although it is surprisingly persistent...