In Numbers^x, Modals^x, Difference between^x

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...

HSS wrote: By the same token, wouldn't "I'm going to be a doctor," or, "I will be a doctor" sound peculiar since becoming a medical doctor is extremely difficult? Or, since those sentences would be rephrased as, "I'm determined to try my hardest to be a doctor," are they okay? "I'm...

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...

— I view quite differently. Take these statements: 1. If I can get the money, I'll come on holiday with you. 2. If I could get the money, I'd come on holiday with you. 3. If I had been able to get the money, I would have gone on holiday with you. I don't agree that the choice of...

Hi, eq, My reference to rules was to rules found in elementary textbooks of English as a foreign language. You know the sort of thing: Subjects and verbs must agree in number. How to use apostrophe-S. I wasn't expecting students to study mathematics or anything quite so rigorous as you are...