By Regards, Modal verbs

Hi,I was looking for help on the Englishpage.com website on its Modal Verb Tuturial on the modal verb 'can' and seem to have found that they use categories to explain the various uses of 'can'. One category is 'can' as 'opportunity' -- and gave this example:I have...

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...

Sabyakgp wrote: Dear Friends, I would like to how "Would" can be used in future perfect as a modal verb. For Example. Analysts predicts that world population would have risen considerably by 2010. (Prediction can be wrong, so using "Would" instead of "Will" means this sentence is less...

Dear Friends, I would like to how "Would" can be used in future perfect as a modal verb. For Example. Analysts predicts that world population would have risen considerably by 2010. (Prediction can be wrong, so using "Would" instead of "Will" means this sentence is less directive than the below...

Thanks a lot again for all your help. "Would" seems to be the most confusing modal verb in English grammer and trying hard to learn the correct usages of this mysterious word . As Nona said. they might have used "Would have had to" to express the uncertainty, in that case, Can we use "had had...

Hi Sabyakgp, As Nona rightly points out, in your first example the modal verb "would" is used to express how the described conditions are related to a previous decision taken by his minders. But while Nona interprets the would as expressing uncertainty about what actually happened, I am more...

JTT ... we regard modal verbs as unmarked for tense What you are (or the book is) saying is just about epistemic modals. Some root modals like 'will' (futurity) or 'can' (ability) have tense finiteness. So your saying cannot be generalized for all modals. I agree most epistemic modals are free...

Paco: By the way I have a feeling that English 'now' (in the linguistic sense, not in the physical sense) is not instantaneous, but it seems to occupy some span in the time that flows from the past to the future. Otherwise I cannot understand the usage of the present progressive tense. JTT: I...

Paco: How about the case of "I would have saved 50 cents if I hadn't bought that popsicle yesterday"? Do you insist that ESLs should believe has a sense of future in this case too? Paco, take a step back, take a deep breath and look once more at your sentence. There is the addition of "have...

If it looks like a past tense, acts like a past tense, and has the 'semantic role' of a past tense – it's a past tense. What other criteria are there? ## JTT: It's these looks that are deceiving you, MrP. ## You haven't answered the question, JT. What are the other criteria? This is a...