Language Overflow

Cardinal

15:00

@JimReynolds LooooL

Jim Reynolds

@Cardinal Scheduled to. Set to.

Cardinal

Being unsure, I asked in comment that would you tell us more :D

@JimReynolds However, she looks to be a very innocuous and determined girl. !

innocuous :D

Jim Reynolds

It's so fun to be funny!

Cardinal

It's so funny to be fun

Mother of Title:

0

Q: Hello everyone, I still have a question about the sentence "from whose known good sense he fully expected to have just such" from "Persuasion"

I still have a question about the sentence "from whose known good sense he fully expected to have just such resolute measures advised as he meant to see finally adopted" from the novel "Persuasion" that was written by Jane Austen. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/austen/jane/a93p/chap2.html Mr ...

@snailplane Yes, I expected the main clause to be in the past tense.

Damkerng T.

15:17

@Cardinal Ahh... the OP seems to understand the sentence rather well already.

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. I haven't read the question yet; the title was interesting to me.

Damkerng T.

Maybe the OP ran out of space while writing the title. They seem to understand the structure well enough.

Cardinal

nods

"were it not for my father, I wouldn't go to the university?" I think this question has something to do with past subjunctive sentences, too. Or maybe I am wrong. — Cardinal 27 mins ago

Ah- I should've removed the question mark :|

"were it not for my father, I wouldn't go to the university" I think this question has something to do with past subjunctive sentences, too. Or maybe I am wrong — Cardinal 23 secs ago

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal You felt that your example is different from the OP's right after posting your comment, right? :)

The OP's examples are questions, but yours is not.

Cardinal

No, I meant to leave a very brief comment as: "were it not for my father, I wouldn't go to the university" ?

Because I already had mentioned the P.S sentences in the comment below the question

Then I added something which leaded to this catastrophic event ! :D

Jim Reynolds

15:33

@Cardinal You are a little funny in the head. That's an additional meaning of funny: strange, odd, brain malfunction.

@Cardinal Hahaha

Catastrophic!!!

Cardinal

:D

Jim Reynolds

Oh .. lol

Cardinal

So if I say I have "an American friend"; he is so funny. then I will be a kind of insult ?

Oh-- I couldn't edited more :| :( :D

LoL, The last one was a Joke

Jim Reynolds

Normally people will think you mean humerous.

Cardinal

It's funny to write Jokes such that people consider them as serious !

Jim Reynolds

15:41

You're phunny.

UK spelling.

Cardinal

– phunny or phunnie
::meanings::
1) – a funny pun
2) – a funny bunny
3) – funny honey or hunny same diff
1) wow that joke was soo phunny!!!
2) aww what a cute phunny.
3) thats why ur my phunny hunny.

I came up with those

Is that the UK version ?

Damkerng T.

Internet version, perhaps. :)

Cardinal

The government has banned the Urban Dictionary; Perfect, really !!

I don't know when this kind of approach would change.

Jim Reynolds

@Cardinal Keep hope. Things (sometimes) change (sometimes for the better)

GHU

Cardinal

:D

Jim Reynolds

15:53

I eat my peas with honey.

I've done so all my life.

Ming Wang

delicious?

Jim Reynolds

It makes them taste quite funny.

But it keeps them on the knife.

Cardinal

Oh- common stop describing your diet regime; I still think about the MFI's toes

Jim Reynolds

A silly poem, @MingWang

@Cardinal Yum!

Cardinal

:D

Jim Reynolds

15:56

When he doesn't have a shower for awhile, he smells like chicken.

With Indian spices!

Cardinal

Hello Ming Wang

Jim Reynolds

There once was a woman named Lynne

Who was so incredibly thin,

That when she essayed

Ming Wang

hello

Jim Reynolds

To drink lemonade,

She slipped through the straw and fell in.

@MingWang hi

Cardinal

LoL

Jim Reynolds

15:59

Let's take a funny break.

Ming Wang

Have you had breakfast?

Cardinal

16:18

My vocabulary book has a section entitled as The Light Touch. It includes some funny lines !

> Henry joined Alcoholic Anonymous. He still imbibes, but under an assumed name

Jim Reynolds

:D

Cardinal

> Victor has a voracious appetite; his favorite food is second

> The intrepid paratrooper spent three years climbing down trees that he never climbed up

:D

Damkerng T.

16:37

@Cardinal These funny lines are helpful!

CowperKettle

Good evening all. Good evening, @snailplane.

Anonymous

Good morning! :-)

Jim Reynolds

Greetings as they apply to your orientation with the sun.

Happy diurnal portion.

Avicenna

17:19

Funny and lovely comment of the day/night:

@user118494 - You're right; some expressions are fine in conversation but should be avoided in more formal writing. However, in this case, "Come on in," is a common, well-accepted idiom, to be avoided only when a vampire is at your door. FumbleFingers' comment may be a bit emotional but I concur with his assertion that there's nothing wrong with the expression. — J.R. ♦ 7 mins ago

I like the humor @J.R. uses in his comments.

Damkerng T.

1

Q: "Come on in" wrong English?

So you open the door and see your friend and say "Come on in" that means you are asking him/her to come in, okay? But then I read in a book that it was wrong English but it did not mention what was the correct form.So that is my question. What is the grammatically correct English phrase or sent...

grammar grammaticality phrase-usage

> EDIT: This was from a story book written in my native language and it's from a conversation between two characters. One says "Come on in" and the other thinks to himself "speaking wrong English."

Haha! I think 'thinking to himself, "Speaking wrong English"' is "wronger". :P

@FumbleFingers : You can save a hell lot of your time if you just get your ass out of here. Don't bother to respond if you're running short of time. — user118494 2 mins ago

Huh?!

CowperKettle

17:38

> What merchandise? whence, whither, and for whom?
Perchance it is a Fate-appointed hearse,
Bearing away to some mysterious tomb
Or Limbo of the scornful universe
The joy, the peace, the life-hope, the abortions
Of all things good which should have been our portions,
But have been strangled by that City's curse.

(Example of "portion")

(0:

That was nearly as far as I managed to advance in that poem. I never read the rest..

V.V.

Hi, Dam.

Damkerng T.

Hi! @V.V. (And sawasdee khrap!)

V.V.

I will read a bit.what 's going on?

Damkerng T.

@V.V. I'm not sure, but I posted a comment, just in case.

@user118494 No need to be harsh, but I believe that you misunderstood him or his messages. (Information on this page may be helpful: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinction.) Also, please ell.stackexchange.com/help/be-nice. — Damkerng T. 53 secs ago

I think the OP misunderstood the tone of FumbleFingers' comments.

V.V.

As you say, Aw!

Cardinal

17:54

I wondering where was @JimReynolds that he didn't take part in thay scalating discussion.

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. I agree that they misunderstood him. His comment is really polite compared to some of his previous comments. The only thing is that expression he used and that is not offensive just an example!

Hi V.V.!

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Ah, you meant it's worse in other questions?!?

Cardinal

I used to misunderstand fumble, but know I understand him and his audio sink resee z

Avicenna

Sometimes!

Cardinal

LoL

Avicenna

17:56

Iremember my own quarrel!

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal I think he tries to be as direct as possible (so it won't waste his and learners' time), but his comment is sometimes easy to be misunderstood.

Avicenna

We reconciled, I mean FumnerFingers and I!

Damkerng T.

Yay!

Avicenna

Yay!

V.V.

Hi Avi,Cardinal.

Avicenna

18:01

@FumbleFingers Hi! This is me again, Sina. I had these in mind when I posted the comment: 1 a radio or TV program (c), 2. The act of broadcasting something (u). Please tell me what's my mistake. I promise not to ask for paraphrasing;-) — Avicenna Jul 20 at 16:49

Damkerng T.

"... so that the cost of such a broadcast stays zero" is an interesting way to phrase it, I think.

Jim Reynolds

@CowperKettle What is this poem? I like it.

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. I still have problem understanding that!

This i one is really interesting for me. I didn't know we use backshifting in hypothetical situations! o_O

6

A: Conditional present or past

The phrase "what would happen if" indicates that we are talking about something that has not happened yet and is unlikely to happen. We are discussing a hypothetical situation, and the consequences of that situation. When we make a sentence about a hypothetical situation, we indicate that it is ...

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna You didn't know means you know now! :D

Avicenna

I struggle hard to know now!

CowperKettle

18:11

City of Dreadful Night

The City of Dreadful Night is a long poem by the Scottish poet James "B.V." Thomson, written between 1870 and 1873, and published in the National Reformer in 1874, then in 1880 in a book entitled The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems. Thomson, who sometimes used the pseudonym "Bysshe Vanolis" — in honour of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Novalis — was a thorough pessimist, suffering from lifelong melancholia and clinical depression, as well as a wanderlust that took him to Colorado and to Spain, among other places. The City of Dreadful Night that gave its title to this poem, however, was made in...

A masterpiece, really.

A long poem that could actually be read and memorized, for it contains good bits of poetry throughout

I came across it when I was looking for examples of usage of the word "ranged"

> The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms,
Amidst the soundless solitudes immense
Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.
The silence which benumbs or strains the sense
Fulfils with awe the soul's despair unweeping:
Myriads of habitants are ever sleeping,
Or dead, or fled from nameless pestilence!

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. If I were rich, I would buy a heliocopter. I guess it refers to now not to the future!

Hi @CowperKettle

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna That's right!

It's hypothetical.

I came to realize that a lot of things in English come in two about one or two years ago.

Avicenna

I learnt conditionals with formulas and then I learnt their usages.

Damkerng T.

It may be helpful (or unhelpful!) if you model English thoughts as "here" and "there" modes.

"here" = now, "there" = then; or "here" = real, "there" = not real.

And so on.

Avicenna

Second conditional: if past form, would/could

Damkerng T.

18:18

Ah, yes. (Took me a few secs to think of the 2nd conditional.)

CowperKettle

Evening, @Avi!

Avicenna

I love poems but they don't love me back! They are always dufficault to be understood!

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. Yes I used to act similarly in order to discuss directly

CowperKettle

@Avicenna (0:

Cardinal

@V.V. Hi all

Damkerng T.

18:20

@Cardinal nods

Avicenna

@CowperKettle :-) But they love you a lot I guess!

Cardinal

I was even worse, considering my bad English

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Aww... maybe they'll change their mind, if you try again. :-)

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. maybe! :-)

CowperKettle

@Avicenna Surely you would understand this:

> There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul.

2

Cardinal

18:24

I think it depends on the current status of "you"; like would imply he still likes that. "liked" means he no longer likes that. I think that is a question about back-shifting. — Cardinal 2 hours ago

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Ah, it's lekon's!

Avicenna

@CowperKettle Yes, this one loves me, too.

CowperKettle

(0:

Cardinal

Frigate ? It reminds me of my old friend Freegate proxy app. :D

CowperKettle

(0:

I doubt that Emily Dickinson used this proxy app.

Damkerng T.

18:28

@CowperKettle For whom the books adore! :D

CowperKettle

She was not a Persian citizen. (0:

@DamkerngT. (0:

Cardinal

@CowperKettle :D

Damkerng T.

Ah, hello, @Catija! How are you today? :-)

Cardinal

Hello Catija

CowperKettle

Evening, Catija!

Avicenna

18:31

Hi @Catija!:-)

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. What is that supposed to mean?

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal That I noticed that the question is from lekon chekon? :)

Cardinal

:-)

@DamkerngT. Do you know him or her; He usually asks good questions, though

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal He's a very detail-oriented learner, I suppose.

Yes, some of his questions are quite interesting.

Anyway, try to backshift this (would you backshift it?): He told me, "I'm going to send this manuscript to all my friends who are alive." :-)

Cardinal

It depends on the current status of He :p

Damkerng T.

18:38

If he said that just yesterday, it'd sound weird to backshift it to to all my friends who were alive, right?

Sorry for my interruption! -- Me interrupting cow!

Cardinal

No no no, I prefer this kind of iterruptions

Awo :D

Damkerng T.

A cute clip about interrupting cow:

interrupting cow joke (Home)

►

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. Why should we back-shift a relative clause ?

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Well, one possible reason is it's easier for the listener to understand it?

Cardinal

I wouldn't say who were alive unless they are already dead which is strange as you said

Damkerng T.

18:42

@Cardinal What if he told you that five years ago?

You wouldn't know, right? Or maybe you just wouldn't think much about it, and let the backshifting kick in.

Cardinal

Hmm, If they were alive now, I would say who are alive

Damkerng T.

Five years is long enough that we can't be sure.

But you'll start to feel this after a certain age.

Cardinal

nods

Avicenna

Backshifting is used for both clauses! This way one sentence is about present--> backshifted to past, the other clause about future --> backshifted to present. It doesn't work.

Cardinal

I had friends who are alive

Is that wrong !

They are not my friend now

Damkerng T.

18:49

@Avicenna Backshifting future to present is something I've only heard just yesterday!

Avicenna

If you change are to is, it's OK.

@DamkerngT. really?

Cardinal

:D

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Yes.

Avicenna

How does it work?

Damkerng T.

Maybe because in English, we have no "future" tense!

Avicenna

18:50

@DamkerngT. o_O

Damkerng T.

And I think backshifting only exists in modern grammars, so it's strange to discuss it in the context of the future tense.

Avicenna

Modern grammarian!

Damkerng T.

:D

I think in traditional grammars, they prefer the term "sequence of tenses" or something similar to that name.

Avicenna

I am pretty angry with everyone of modern grammarians>:(

They do their best to be as strange as possible!

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal If you said I had a friend who is alive, I'd think that you and your friend were friends in the past, but probably not anymore, and you know that they're still alive.

Cardinal

18:53

Thank God I started learning English Recently :D :v

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Ah, but what they're trying to do is to streamline the grammar, I think!

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. I already said the same thing

5 mins ago, by Cardinal

They are not my friend now

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. Then they need to try better!

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Okay!

Avicenna

Really backshift of future to present!? Like he will go to he goes?

Damkerng T.

18:55

No. I don't think so. (No future tense.)

Avicenna

7 mins ago, by Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Backshifting future to present is something I've only heard just yesterday!

Damkerng T.

Oh, it was in an answer that I don't think the answerer really used the term in the standard way.

Cardinal

I can remember the first time BillJ told me English has no future tense; It was a big shock !

Avicenna

If there is no future tense what are the rules of reffering to the time after now called? Time after now rules?

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal I know, right? :D

@Avicenna It's about the future (time), not tense.

Cardinal

19:00

I desperately asked for the reason over here :D

@DamkerngT. yes yes yes :D

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. Explain more, please!!!

Damkerng T.

One advantage I can see (actually there are several) from a learner's point of view if we accept this idea (that English has no perfect tense) is that it's easier to understand several common expressions in English.

Cardinal

@Avicenna It means that future events can be expressed using modals

Damkerng T.

A recent example in a game show I saw a couple days ago: one competitor said to another competitor, "I'm beating you!", but she said that even before the game began!

Cardinal

But, there are only two tenses past and not-past

@DamkerngT. nods

Avicenna

19:03

@DamkerngT. present continuos is used to talk about future, mainly implying that you have plans for that.

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Yes. That's how traditional grammar explains it, right?

But isn't it an "exception".

Cardinal

nods

Damkerng T.

How many exceptions do we have in traditional grammar, just to hold everything together? :D

Avicenna

Exception? I guess it's pretty common!

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna It's common, yes, but it has to be an explicit rule listed in tradition grammar books. (Thus, my "exception".)

Cardinal

19:06

@DamkerngT. To make everything fit the strict rules.

Damkerng T.

nods

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. What do you call a time after now?

Damkerng T.

Future, of course, but don't confuse time with tense.

Or tense with modality, or modality with aspect, and so on.

Avicenna

So there is a future time, right?

Damkerng T.

Yes!

Cardinal

19:08

Of course, but we use the modal "will" to refer to that events

Damkerng T.

For me, time reflects the reality, tense reflects the tool (i.e., the language).

Avicenna

And we use some words to imply we talk about that time, right?

Damkerng T.

Any language can express virtually all sorts of situations we run into or we come with, but we use different ways in different languages to express our thoughts.

Cardinal

@Avicenna What do you mean?

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna If you said, tomorrow, of course, the listener would think of "tomorrow", the day after today. :D

Avicenna

19:10

@Cardinal words like tomorrow, next week...

V.V.

Avi, I was also shocked when I heard it first. We have no future tense.

Damkerng T.

I leave tomorrow, for example, is another grammatical sentence in English language.

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. the day after today is future.

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. nods

Damkerng T.

It's future in time, but the tense is basically the present.

Future (reality), present (tool, because your tool has no future).

Avicenna

19:11

Nouns have tense?

Damkerng T.

(Ah, no pun intended!)

@Avicenna What do you mean? -- confused!

Cardinal

I call you the minute I have got the result

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. tense is basically present. What's tense you talk about, tomorrow's?

Cardinal

I think that usage of S.P for future event is also grammatical

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Hmm... I'd use I'll call there.

Cardinal

19:13

I see, It was not a good example

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna If it helps, in the two-tense system, the two tenses are "past" and "non-past".

So, tomorrow can be expressed with a "non-past" tense.

Avicenna

Tomorrow is a noun.

Damkerng T.

(Or better, a sentence with tomorrow or the idea of tomorrow.)

@Avicenna Yes. I was trying to follow your reasoning, because you were asking about tomorrow.

Avicenna

tense is something we show with verbs mainly.

Cardinal

I aim to travel to Canada by the end of November. what about that ?

Damkerng T.

19:16

@Avicenna That's correct!

7 mins ago, by Avicenna

And we use some words to imply we talk about that time, right?

I assumed that you were thinking about time expressions. Sorry if I guessed wrong.

(I assumed that because you used words ... about that time, not verbs ...)

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. Like will, for example?

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Sounds okay to me! :D

@Avicenna Oh, but will is a verb, a modal verb, an auxiliary verb.

It expresses modality.

Cardinal

nods

Avicenna

Yes, it definitely is!

Damkerng T.

Not tense.

(At least not so in modern grammars.)

Avicenna

19:19

You say that it is a present tense.

Cardinal

@JimReynolds will have slept before :D :D

Avicenna

Oh wait no tense?

Damkerng T.

Yes. I think I'd say it's no tense.

V.V.

Intention

Avicenna

So we have past, present and no tense tenses?

Damkerng T.

19:20

@Cardinal Hee

@Avicenna We have "past" and "non-past".

Cardinal

I am unerthing that great, great question

Give me a second

Avicenna

So what is this no tense?

V.V.

I heard that too.

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Basically, yes.

Avicenna

Yes what? It was a wh question.

Cardinal

19:22

9

Q: Some of you will have met me before vs Some of you met me before

I really do not get how "will" and past infinitive is used here. This comes from an example in a textbook, explaining usage of will in assumptions: Some of you will have met me before. I wonder, why not just: Some of you (have) met me before. And what about future perfect? Some of...

grammar modal-verbs expressions future-tense

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna I assumed that you meant, "So what is this? no tense?"

Cardinal

I think anyone must read @DamkerngT.'s answer

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Thanks! :-)

V.V.

Past and all the rest

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. Oh, no, I didn't.

So we have mixed present and future and made them into no-past tense. This is what modern grammarian try to do!

Cardinal

19:24

:D

Damkerng T.

If someone asked you what tense is used in this sentence (the part you be honest with him), what would you answer them? It's important you be honest with him.

Present, past, or future?

Avicenna

Present.

Cardinal

Not-past

Damkerng T.

Interesting. How would you explain to them if they asked why it's not you are?

Cardinal

including from now on- present and the future !

@DamkerngT. Perhaps, subjunctive is more formal :D

Avicenna

19:29

I would give them the same answer my lovely old grammar gives them.

Damkerng T.

Something from a modern grammar book:

> Verbal inflectional forms can be tensed or non-tensed. As their names suggest, present tense forms and past tense forms are tensed.

Avicenna

We use the base form of the verb in this constructions.

Damkerng T.

> [...] The non-tensed forms are the participle and the plain form of the verb.

> [...] The non-tensed plain form of the verb is used in infinitive, subjunctive, and imperative clauses. The infinitive exemplified in (2) is preceded by the word to. We call this the to-infinitive.

Cardinal

wait wait wa

would you tell me which is verb here:

Avicenna

I am really enjoying the discussion, but my phone is dying. Give some time to charge it.

Damkerng T.

19:32

@Avicenna Aww... don't diiieee!

Cardinal

He had been playing for Man.U for 6 years

Damkerng T.

:P

Avicenna

I will come back about 30 minutes

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Oh! I'm not sure if I'll still be here, but don't worry, we can continue this anytime later. :)

(BTW, if you run into snailboat, she knows a lot more about this than me!)

@Cardinal I'd say it's in the progressive and perfect aspects, and in the past tense.

V.V.

"thought" is a preterit modal.

Damkerng T.

19:35

Oops! Sorry about the passive voice. -- Corrected!

Cardinal

I mean you said "...The non-tensed forms are the participle..."

Participle ?

I cannot digest that part

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Yes, the book would say that playing is non-tensed, but had is tensed, right?

Cardinal

playing is a participle participated in the verb phrase (?)

Thus, the verb is "had been playing" ?

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal nods

@Cardinal Technically, you'd call it a "verb phrase", or even better a "verb group".

Cardinal

I confused verb and verb phrase, I don't know why :|

So, tense is defined for the "verb-group" ?

or only "had"

Damkerng T.

19:40

@Cardinal I'm not sure how precisely they would treat this point, but I think it's safe to say that had is tensed.

Cardinal

nods

Damkerng T.

20:01

@Avicenna I think I forgot to make one important point, however much I like the modern grammar, I don't think traditional grammar is wrong or even obsolete. (In any case, I think a lot of teachers still use traditional grammar in their classes.) And personally, I think whichever works best for you is the right choice. So, don't worry if you're more comfortable with traditional grammar (or modern grammar; it's totally your choice!).

They are just two different ways to arrive at the same thing (like we can work out 5+5+5 by adding three 5's together, or we can multiply 5 by 3; both get us 15 as the answer, so it doesn't really matter much).

Cardinal

I am paging through my CAGIU, I couldn't easily (I didn't see when skimming) find the word "tense" although there are words: future, past, present; It is really interesting; I didn't notice that before.

I think it follows the new system very secretly :D

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Haha!

Cardinal

@V.V.

@BillJ would explain that "Thought" is a modal preterite briefly. That sounds interesting. — Cardinal 7 mins ago

V.V.

Preterit is past simple

Cardinal

and modal preterit ?

Avicenna

20:12

@DamkerngT. Imagine a teacher teaching present simple and tells the students this is non past tense. The they teach future and again says this is non past. Then they should inclued the first one is a non past used to talk about now/present, this one is a non past used to talj about future. Then they continue, we gave about 8 different non past forms. They all have the same name but different references. This is the result of the teaching %-) %-) %-( %-( these are their students.

:D

Cardinal

I mean "thought" is a modal preterit

V.V.

Preterit modal is the verb which is in past simple and has some meaning of perfect

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna LOL

V.V.

That's really interesting.

Cardinal

@V.V. nods - Thanks, That is great

GHL#

V.V.

20:14

I just read it in wiki

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. :D

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Huh?!

V.V.

That's why both present and past tenses are possible

Damkerng T.

Cardinal

Awo, I didn't type "you"; I am very tired now, sorry

Damkerng T.

20:15

I don't think it's the same "modal preterite".

It's preterite (i.e., "past"), yes, but modal?!?

Cardinal

you mean the e ate the end of the word?

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna If possible, I recommend reading Leech's books.

Some parts from a book by Geoffrey N. Leech:

V.V.

No,that's the difference between Br.Eng and Am.Eng.

Damkerng T.

> The distinction between the Present Tense and Past Tense in English is a prime example of how grammatical labels can both help and mislead us. It is true that there is a rough and partial correspondence between ‘Present Tense’ and present time, and between ‘Past Tense’ and past time.

Cardinal

@V.V. nodes

Avicenna

20:20

@DamkerngT. If possible I recommend you go and sleep. It's around 3:30 there, right? I do apologize if my discussion kept you all awake this late! So sorry!

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Ah, thanks! I actually feel a bit sleepy. :D

But don't worry. It was because I enjoyed the conversation. :D

V.V.

Good night all!

Damkerng T.

@V.V. Good night!

Avicenna

@DamkerngT. SO GOOD NIGHT!

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. what made you to react in that fashion? I am a little bit worried

Avicenna

20:21

Good night @V.V.!

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal My reaction was for the part "thought" is a modal preterite.

Cardinal

I thought you saw that when @V.V quoted

Avicenna

I give up. Night all who may 30 this!

Cardinal

Good night

Damkerng T.

@Avicenna Good night!

Cardinal

20:23

48 mins ago, by V.V.

"thought" is a preterit modal.

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal I saw that, but I thought V.V. was going to write more, and then our discussion continued, and I forgot about that!

Cardinal

nods

Damkerng T.

I was surprised to see that BillJ was the one who originally said that!

Cardinal

:D

Damkerng T.

Anyway, I'm still clearing up a few things on my computer, but probably not for long, so just in case I forget, good night! :-)

Cardinal

20:26

I was to say same things

good night

^_^

Damkerng T.

(^_^)/

DEAD

21:07

@JimReynolds I won't suspend you the first day I get elected.

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