Teacher Discussion Forums

Even with Yesterday, you cannot prove Simple Past "I ate dinner yesterday" is "finished"! So how can you prove "I have lived in Japan" is so? I'd right away like to point out that I wasn't attempting to prove "I have lived in Japan" is "finished" AT ALL. :?: Could Shun get my meaning any more wrong...

Do you guys never browse any bookstores? Not even publishers' online catalogues?!

Oh, I noticed what the other teacher had said all right, Jose, and indirectly agreed with that teacher in the advice I gave ("use 'will', not 'may' or 'might' ") regarding the "likely" vs (pragmatically) "unlikely" (did your fellow teacher say, like me, that "may" would sound "dismissive " here?), b...

More a simple tongue-twister than anything clever, but try saying it fast (don't read it!) straight away and you may get a not totally "pleasant" :wink: surprise: I'm not a pheasant plucker I'm a pheasant plucker's son I'll keep on plucking pheasants 'til the pheasant plucking's done. Taught to me b...

Oh, I see. :evil: Now that you point it out, I am sure I have heard that joke somewhere before, but at the time I wrote my reply, I had read the "eat what we can" as meaning the carrot crop was of low quality ("Yuck! I can't eat most of these horrible-looking carrots!") rather than being so bountifu...

A clear promise: I'll call you tomorrow. What might interfere with making this absolute promise? A lack of time. So, the speaker can only promise he or she will call IF he or she has time. Thus: I'll call you tomorrow IF I HAVE TIME. The if -clause is what is important, and all that needs to be said...

Actually, no, I'm not surprised YOU haven't heard of Jackendoff, Shun - I mean, you don't seem to know very much about grammar or linguistics at all, so how would you know about this famous linguist?

Jackendoff, as in Ray Jackendoff. I'm honestly surprised you haven't heard of him, Shun. He wrote a quite well-publicized and well received/reviewed book a few years ago: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-827012-7 http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/?view=usa&ci=0198270127 http://www.american...

Sorry to spoil your fun, but I made them less convoluted (and correct):

They worked hard on that bridge last week, so it's finally (been) finished, at last! (And obviously, if they hadn't, it [still] wouldn't be finished now).

We eat some and throw away the rest.

Hmm I should perhaps have written "...THEIR understanding...", or "their 'understanding'..." etc.

The fact is (like it or not!), how people (plural!) actually use tenses reflects their (plural!) implicit understanding of time.

lolwhites wrote:Time influences the verb forms we can use, but crucially it does not dictate them.

Try telling that to those who'd like to dictate what tenses we use according to their understanding of time.

ANYWAY, sorry, I was forgetting that this was iconoclasts's thread, so let's get back to what was being discussed (or has the discussion now moved to the, rather unhelpfully separated* "part 2" thread?). * I must admit that I haven't read this, part 1, as closely as part 2, so I am not sure if the b...

****! Long day at the "office" today. I've just noticed that I typed "eyes" originally - that should be EARS, all you hopeful learners lining up to take the F-EL ("F-all", as in "TOEFL") test.

My eyes always *beep* up when "International English" is mentioned. I just thought of a new diversion for learners on Dave's: they can try to guess what "naughty" word goes in the above blank. Not all dictionaries are of much help (I couldn't find the necessary cross reference at "ear" in half of t...

Shun, the main reason that people respond to you is not actually to tell you that you are wrong, but to confirm to themselves that they are right (and it doesn't take a whole lot of thought to come to such confirmations).:wink: I don't think you will ever get anyone on Dave's to agree that you are r...