In Verbs^x, Inflections^x, Modals^x

<They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are very easy and simple to learn. They have no inflections for different grammatical persons, which is also...

Milky wrote: <To my mind, the articles are the trickiest part of English grammar> And modals? They are similar to other Germanic languages in structure and as there are only two infinitives in English (and in Swedish, for that matter), the modals or defective auxiliaries are...

only the first verb of a verb phrase is finite (inflected for person) might have -- might is a modal -- no inflection

Hi Need is a marginal modal auxiliary, that is, it can behave as if it were a modal (bare inf and without infection), but can be used as a main verb ( to inf +inflection) too. In your sentence, need is used in modal perfect form. She need not have told him that = it was not necessary, but he...

hi greetings from the philippines !!! I need your help on the following. I don't think my English is all that bad, but I frequently get confused when trying to use the following verbs. A detailed description with examples is as follows: She has to go. (Present) She had to go....

I presume that you have gone onto the wrong track. There literally exist 2 verb phrases here. What I mean is that one is given 'inflection' (ie. Subject Agreement + Tense + Aspect) and the other only given 'Tense' (and all that goes with it: Tense, Agreement with Object, etc.) To make it...

Alright, so modals are not inflected... That should mean they are non finite. How come they do not work in nonfinte contexts such as infinitive clauses then? If you argue that the form of the verb is what marks an inflection, how do you explain that put is the past form of put ? No...

Very true, Aeolus29. There are only two tense inflections in English - the "s" for the present (only for third person singular), and the "ed" for the past. In this sense there are only two tenses. All the other verbal machinery of English depends on combining auxiliaries and/or modals with the...

That's interesting, equivical. What is the nature of the inflection? Tense is a morphological thing: Smoke -Present Tense Smoked -Past Tense Will smoke = future time. See that the verb is without an affix of any kind? There is no future tense in English. We use a modal to refer to...

1. 'Last week, I may go sailing.' I find this sentence baffling: it seems to contradict itself. The contradiction seems to reside in the opposition of 'may' and 'last week'. I myself would describe this as a conflict of context (past) and tense (non-past). How would you describe it? The...