Teacher Discussion Forums

I was in a hurry, Duncan. That is why I did not make myself clear. :cry: As native speakers, we will normally encounter aspects of our language we cannot explain and we'll rely only on our intuitions to decide whether a certain sentence is acceptable or not. That is why I believe that before we can ...

Hi Duncan,

First of all, I must say language is so complex we cannot expect a textbook to help all the time.
Next, to your student's example. If you change "I" to another person, say "she", what do you think? Is the sentence acceptable then?

I wish she moved.

Best,

Ed

Thanks, Lolwhites. Maybe Shun will trust you...

Sorry, Shun, but you have NOT been careful. You need to read Metal's posts as well as your examples again. In fact, you have to reread all the good explanations everyone has offered. Otherwise, I regret to say it is useless to continue. Please compare "I had used to think that the world was round" w...

Shun, "The danger of google hits" referred to how unreliable this type of search can be. If you just put three words together (had used to), you may find texts --like those you quoted-- where the three words are together but not in the sense you were looking for. If you are not careful, you can assu...

Andrew,

I don't know whether this is relevant or not, but I was trying to find Spanish equivalents for the examples with "come" and "go", and they seem to express purpose, as in "Come here in order to..."
I'll analyze them a bit more and get back to you if I find anything interesting.

Best,

Ed

Continued I promise you the sentence does matter. From the very beginning, teachers were wrongly teaching students through the meaning of the sentence. Today we instinctively and subconsciously regard the tense expresses whatever a sentence expresses, though we don't mention the role of the sentence...

Shun, Now I'll refer to what you have said to me: I’m too not so sure what you are pointing at. Do you have a rule for the student to say that "JFK was killed" and not "JFK has been killed"? If you have any rule about any tense, any rule at all, please tell me. Actually, a past person doesn't necess...

Shun, There are so many posts here, I have a hard time following. Let me just refer to this one that caught my eye: Lorikeet wrote: However, the three examples you have chosen are all of the type, "The pencil sharpener was used to sharpen the pencil." or "He used his cell phone to call his friend." ...

From an earlier post by Shun Tang: THE EVOLUTION OF A TENSE It is a long story. Nowadays as we explain the modal verb, people might go so far as to say this: Quote: Permission: (e.g.) Can I smoke in this room? (e.g.) You can't smoke here, but you can smoke in the garden. (e.g.) You can meet her tomo...

Since Met56’s understanding is to look at the time and feel it, and you three gentlemen are in almost total agreement, I have to reason that you all have the same power to feel and look at the Time, like a past time as JFK was shot during parade. I wonder if you guys feel and look at it rather clea...

If something comes easy to a kid, and he or she shows interest, and the opportunity is there, then by all means do what you can to help him or her learn. If it's something you've got to impose on him/her against his/her will, your efforts are bound to fail anyway. I guess you are right. My niece is...

I agree that COULD sounds more natural.

Now, if we want to be more neutral and just ask Dónde estará? as if wondering, the best English equivalent would be "I wonder where s/he is".

But I guess that's enough about Spanish now.

Ianano29, Besides the situations given in your textbook, you can try working with a song like "By the time I get to Phoenix", where you will find a list of predictions used in a natural way. I don't know how old you are or if your students will like that song, but it's a suggestion anyway. Regards, ...

What they have said elsewhere (I think I know the forum Shun Tang is talking about) is that in "If I knew", "knew" is not the past tense. It just looks like it, but it is actually a subjunctive (now almost lost in English inflection). Remainders of the subjunctive are forms like "It is necessary tha...