In Verbs^x, Inflections^x, Subjunctives^x

Thanks for your comment, GG. I find English tremendously fascinating just because of all these exceptions, irregularities and oddities. And because there are so few inflections and verb forms, even educated people sometimes disagree on correct usage in cases that seem very clear to me. (The...

New2grammar wrote:So you are saying the 'if' usage does not automatically make a sentence subjunctive? Can you give me a couple of examples in different contexts where 'if' is not subjunctive?Certainly, New2grammar:1. I showed him some pictures yesterday. If he liked a picture, he would nod.2. I...

"If my child were caught shoplifting,

Hello Xavier, you're right of course: Communication is one of the tasks of language. The Grammar is "late": Language follows special patterns (word order, inflection, cases, conjugation, etc) - language has to follow those patterns as without them, communication wouldn't be possible. The only...

I was a bit confused myself in the beginning becuase I thought that modals were just can, could; may, might; will, would; must; shall, should. These verbs are the "classical" modals, but every verb that expresses/describes the modus of a full verb is a modal verb: I may go e.g. means I have...