Teacher Discussion Forums

What's staring you in the face is the link between the three uses of the second form, a link which is by no means "curious history". BTW your use of that term is another example of you deciding what is and isn't important for other people. The history of the gradual and almost total disappearance of...

Yes, but you have to accept that you want to call it "Turn right" even when it's "Turn left" because it's usually "Turn right". I think you have stepped over an invisible line. I'd very much rather you didn't tell me (look how glacially remote I'm being) what is of little use to me whatever "you str...

I agree that there's something, but it's hard to pin down. And it certainly ain't no rule. "Ok new recruits, your job will be catching criminals" has a nuance that is different from "Ok, new recruits, your job will be to catch criminals". Something also to do with a perception of how easy or difficu...

Right off the top of my head I'd say that the noun form of a verb that is followed by "to" would most likely be followed by "to" too: I wish to : My wish is to I plan to : My plan is to and by extension I expect to : My expectation is to which is why I don't care for "My desire in life is travelling...

But now we're back on the stuck record of "But what's the use of this to learners?". I suppose that "you" in that last post means "an imaginary student". The analysis that a particular use of the second form is remote or irrealis is probably a post hoc one and may be of little help to learners. That...

I suppose it is tilting at windmills to expect "went" to really be called anything but the "past (form)" by the vast majority of people. So what is everybody's understanding of why the second form (Barry) does crop up in "Did you know that she was married?" "I wanted to ask you a question" "Did Mada...

It just doesn't seem rigorous enough to call "went" the past of "go", except as a quick fix in class or for the sake of convenience. Especially when it's not being the past. "Go" is the base form. Or some such term. It's only the present simple when it is the present simple, the bare infinitive when...

The French "past imperative" is really a sort of future perfect imperative, and is no different from "Be gone by lunch-time" or "Have the letters written by tomorrow". My take on all this is that there is a not-the-present form of the verb.It's either non-present because it's past, because it's "pol...

"Did Sir want anything else?"

"I was wondering what your name was"

Yes, you can do rigorous needs analysis and adapt your practices or introduce new ones to reflect the student's needs, interests and abilities. Then you say "I will do this but you must do that". The student doesn't do it. That's the point I think that jesl is making. We can't be beating ourselves o...

Whilst I agree that variables such as cognates, different alphabets, motivation and a long long etcetera make any definitive length of time an impossibility I think it is useful to be able to say "Most motivated students seem to take about 200 hours to get from level/exam A to level/exam B" if only ...

Here's some ammunition for you. It's from Cambridge but I don't know what the research they've done is. Each of the early level jumps seems to involve about 200 hours of study. Though its worth pointing out that these hours have to be balanced between the skills and taken fairly seriously by teacher...

For some people it justs marks the infinitive. So it's a sort of prefix that's not attached to its verb. That's the thinking that lead to split infinitives being such an anathema. Others question whether the blocks of meaning don't put the "to" more with its left-hand verb: I want/ to go or I want t...

I don't think anybody in their right minds would really say "It's we!" even if they might insist on "It is I" in abstract. My idea of "disjunctive" gets blown out of the water by "Our friends and we went" "We and our friends went" "Our friends and us went" and "Us and our friends went". I don't mind...

Yup. Mormon missionaries in the country where they are sent seem to crack something like B2 in a year: loads of motivation, more contact with natives than I could ever sustain and, I imagine, classes before or during their stay.

Don't diplomats have the same steep learning curve?