In Modals^x, Clauses^x, Numbers^x

Hi, 1. Would you say if a person is reporting on a content that is permanent, on-going, or relevant in content nature, the reporting word could be both present and past and also, do you feel both present and past tenses are OK in the that -clause? He said/says his house is/was in Chicago. He...

Hi, Two questions, if I may. 1. Is this a correct conditional? Note that the priests had to look after their own fellowship with God if they were to minister to others. To follow what I call "traditional patterns", it seems logical to write it as: Note that the priests...

Thanks again You are not going to believe this I problably understand Well at least 1000 more than before CalifJim wrote You have a choice I would guess that the preference is for the version

Basically, the reactor Now, don't tear your hair out and start screaming, but the second of the two series above is sometimes taken to mean the same as the first series! -- that is, taken to refer to what was then the future instead of what was then the past. My recommendation, if...

Kilimanjaro wrote: Hello Cool Breeze, This sentence is taken from Michael SWAN's Practical English Usage. He says "might" can be used in such contexts Hi Kilimanjaro Yes, I know it's from that book. You mentioned it in a previous post. I didn't say it was right or wrong in my opinion. I...

Milky wrote: "I'd like to can swim" is ungrammatical. In English, modal auxiliaries like can and must are disallowed in infinitival clauses." That is a statement that is true of any variety of English with which I am familiar. Prescriptivists and descriptivists are often going to agree...

Hi Brummel Welcome to the forums. Your reasoning regarding can and could is right, and what causes further problems is the fact that can has a number of meanings. He can play the piano can be put in the past by simply replacing can with could especially if the reference is to skill, ability or...

CalifJim wrote: Don't use at any given time when a modal such as can or could occupies the main clause. Use at any time instead. Purely observational. The distribution of the phrases at any time and at any given time seems to me to be connected with the use of modals, but the...

Thanks for your reply, MrP. 1. I would call it an exclamatory conditional. The main clause is left unspoken, but we can usually infer it, e.g. "if only she would contact me, I would be very happy". Ok, it’s a conditional with an unexpressed result but still a ‘conditional’ right? In...

deleted by an obligatory deletion transform . Will this work on the clutter in my living room? Don't we all wish!!! LOL Part of the problem, as Paco has aptly observed, is the problem of finding the missing (deleted) subject of a dependent clause, the infinitive clause "to be ......