By Modals, Jokes

I could play tennis well -- could be interpreted as referring to a person's present state ability -- how he can play tennis well now; but, it could mean how he could play tennis well in the past if some part or parts preceding it or following it indicate that. Right? Yes, that's right in...

MrPedantic wrote: Yes they are similar, but... When you want to say that it is required something to be done regularly you use have to He has to do his homework after school every day. Cf. however 1. You must take three of these pills every day after lunch. Yes but in this case it is the...

Dear madam / sir, Being possessor of an exploitation right concerning an innovating technology of communication described below, I solicit your attention in order to know if any utilization would eventually interest you. Kind regards, (letters into brackets are readable with a phonetic...

Actually this division into two tenses (Past and Non-past) is not at all unconventional. Many linguists and writers on language have observed of English (especially since we use the present to express the future so often, and since we cannot express the future with a grammatical ending, but...