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4min chapter
Why Some People Say 'Might Could.' The Spanish Influence on English. Mickle Story.
Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
Past Tense Modal Verbs Are Different From Lexical Verbs
Auxiliary verbs don't have third person's singular present tense forms. They also don't have infinitive forms so sentences like, he cans, she mays and it woulds are ungrammatical. Instead of showing past time, motal modals typically perform one of two other functions. One is called 'modal remoteness', which is a technical term for unlikelihood. The second is back shifting - if squiggly says to ardvark, i may go skiing in november, fenster might say the same thing later.
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