By Present tenses, Modals

"a form of the past tense" doesn't make sense to me. There is only one form of the past tense. I think you mean "a past tense form".Here are the forms of the modals. (Recall that this does not mean that they are used only in these tenses.)Present: will, shall, can,...

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

Let us recast the sentence in direct speech, that is, you are speaking to Mark, "When you arrive (simple present tense is most suitable here - I wonder you can use any other tense), we shall/will go out for dinner."When you turn that into an indirect speech, the sentence will become,...

Are they wrong since the modal usages lack the fundamental conditional uses of the modals 'would' and 'could'? Not sure what you're asking. The correct sequence of tenses applies to conditionals as well as to non-conditionals. 1. We are all watching in a sort of stunned...

The first sentence means essentially the same as "...can/will you lend me some?", but "could/would" has the effect of "softening" the request -- making it seem less direct. The use of "happen to have" (as opposed to just "have") makes no...

They certainly seem correct to me. Perhaps it's the idiom happen to that's bothering you.If you happen to have money = If, by chance, it turns out that you have money CJ

Hi, In part of the final post of the thread started by Anon named "Nagging conditional problem", Marius wrote this: If you happen to have money (with/on you), could/would you lend me some? [this is more about present or: Should you have money (with/on you), could/would you lend...

Hi, I think I have asked a similar question before and Marius supplied me with helpful answers and references (?) but after looking at those sources, I could not still figure out what to make of these nagging questions. Could you help me? I went to the Google Book Search and think I have found...

Hi, Please tell me what conditional these are and it they are correct If we take a look at the table of contents, it tell us what topics are included and on what page the information is located. -- Is this concern with what some people seem to call 'universal truth' and thus, a zero...

Hi, Are these all examples of the first conditional? If a if-clause is in the present tense, then any modal verbs can be used and it would still be a first conditional sentence? A zero conditional sentence is the one only states general rules and can't use modal verbs? All first...