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Re: hope and sorry

In some cases this is possible, but not in general. You would typically have some sort of modal verb there.I'm sorry you are leaving us so soon.I'm sorry you have to have such a serious operation next month.I'm sorry you can't attend the party tonight. CJ

ESL General English Grammar Questions by CalifJim 126 days ago Verbs Tenses Present tenses Modals Past tenses Modal verbs
Re: "I thought..."

CalifJim wrote:After "mental" verbs in the past tense use the past tense or the past of a modal verb (e.g., would, might, could) I late. CJ As I have said, I would also use the past tense here, but I wasn't sure about the possibility of using the present tense. And then I came across...

ESL General English Grammar Questions by Loojka 1 yr 54 days ago Verbs Tenses Present tenses Modals Past tenses Modal verbs
Re: past perfect vs past in if-clause in type 2 conditional

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 tell...

ESL General English Grammar Questions by yulysess 1 yr 141 days ago Regards Grammar Verbs Constructions Tenses Clauses Present tenses Past perfect Modals Expressions Universities Past tenses Conditionals English grammar Modal verbs

Re: "shall" and "will" for 18th century readers: interchangeable?

Ok, I got it but I don't know how to put the link here so i'll just paste the context here. This was given by CalifJim as response to the subject "Conditional with Modal Verbs"... Strictly speaking, the modals are not tensed. However, they developed historically...

ESL General English Grammar Questions by

Intelligent Freak 1 yr 145 days ago

Verbs Tenses Clauses Present tenses Modals Past tenses Conditionals Modal verbs Images

Subjunctive Confusion

http://www.englishforums.com/English/Pleased/hvdv/Post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/Subjunctive/gmkc/Post.htmIn both of the above posts, miriam has explained the subjunctive in detail but it's all quite confusing to me. I've studied subjuctive from American Heritage and Columbian Guide...

ESL General English Grammar Questions by Grammarian-bot 2 yr 66 days ago Verbs Tenses Clauses Present tenses Modals Subjunctives Past tenses Conditionals Modal verbs
Re: How would you say..?

JTT: Why do you think that sentence 1 "refers to T2 (present time) but sentence 2 "refers to T1 or some time between T1 and T2 (past time)"? Inanc: Simply because, 'could' is used as the past form of 'can' in most circumstances, although I know this is not true all the time....

ESL General English Grammar Questions by just the truth 3 yr 208 days ago Verbs Tenses Present tenses Modals Past tenses Modal verbs
Subjunctive mood in English

Hello This is a garbage-like posting written by a poor English learner who has been and still now is agonized by subjunctive things which supposedly underlie English collocations. My way of understanding English grammar The English language uses two moods (indicative/subjunctive) and two...

ESL Linguistics Discussion Forum by paco2004 3 yr 255 days ago Verbs Auxiliaries Tenses Modals Grammar Past tenses Subjunctives Present tenses Speak english English grammar Past perfect Modal verbs Conditionals
Re: Can / Could and Will / Would

tense has no bearing on the semantics of modals I'm trying to analyze this sentence, especially in terms of its ramifications. Which of the following are consistent with that sentence? No modal verb expresses tense. No modal verb expresses a relationship in time. When determining the meaning of...

ESL Linguistics Discussion Forum by CalifJim 3 yr 261 days ago Verbs Tenses Modals Grammar Past tenses Adverbs Present tenses Modal verbs
Re: Can / Could and Will / Would

Hello everyone, I've just joined this forum and couldn't but help noticing this thread. I'm doing some research on modals so I'd like to offer my two cents worth: I will propose that modals bear syntactic tense, not semantic tense. What I mean can be seen by Seqeunce of Tense (SoT) observations....

ESL Linguistics Discussion Forum by equivocal 3 yr 262 days ago Verbs Tenses Modals Past tenses Clauses Present tenses Modal verbs
Re: Tenseless Modals

CJ: I answered this once before. >>>>>>>>>> JTT: No, Jim, you failed to answer it the first time. As I stated, I was not looking for any kind of reported speech. Jim wrote: However, to be more exact, the prototypical modal for the meaning "it is possible that" is "may". Frequent substitutes...

ESL Linguistics Discussion Forum by just the truth 3 yr 271 days ago Verbs Auxiliaries Tenses Modals Past tenses Clauses Present tenses Modal verbs

In Present tensesx, Modal verbsx, Past tensesx

In Present tenses^x, Modal verbs^x, Past tenses^x