Well, "Its emergency room had 84,946 visits" seems obviously annually

what questions do you think I haven't answered, JTT? None in this threqd. Your first post here completely misunderestands what I said or have ever maintained. You have never answered why forms that you admit were in some indefinite past used as a past tense, and still function as a past tense, where a present tense form cannot be used, are supposedly tenseless. Yoku've still never come up with an answer to why everybody else but you and OmSigDavid thinks "probably" and "Probable" mean "without much of a doubt" rather than "maybe, maybe not", which is the point you think it starts. Basically all you ever do is fall back on some half-understood (and sometimes misunderstood) quote from somebody you regard as an authority, In other words, yu're being prescriptive, but refuse to acknowledge it.
I'm sorry, but Contrex and McT have it right. You're a one-trick pony and too blind to see it.

See JTT stumble, trip, and fall.

And if you keep "sic"ing me, I'm gonna start siccing you back, Just saw one boner you pulled last night, incidentally. You know what they say about people in glass houses.

Tic rather than trick I should have thought. A kind of Tourettes.

re Contrex:

"By George, I think he's got it!" (with thanks to Lerner and Loewe)

Talk about mindless repetition, MJ. Are you a cheesehead?

But you never provide examples, Jack. You can say it tens of millions of times but note, nobody, including you, is stepping up to the plate with examples.

http://able2know.org/topic/217591-2#post-5385227

Another innocent thread spoiled, because JTT joined it.

What a piece of work.

What the hell are you talking about, JTT? I provided a number of examples. I really think you have a problem with retention.

In its simplest form, "I can do it today".
"I could do it yesterday, but I strained a muscle". You will notice you can't say, "I can do it yesterday".

His imprimatur is the kiss of death to any thread. Or ought to be. Since, as a troll, he has a pathological desire for the last word, the only sane response is to not "feed the troll".

You have a lot of gall, McTag. You can't defend your own nutty prescriptions, because you've stolen them from others, and you pull this. If you want to address something in particular as regards language then address it, instead of being a little coward.

My goodness, an echo.

I see you've avoided answering my last points, opting instead for insults.

There's no syntactic connection between your examples of CAN & COULD, MJ. There is a semantic connection. That semantic connection in your example is 'could' describing a past general ability, not 'could' acting as the past tense of CAN.

A: [to B] I can do it today.

[Three hours later]

B: Is it done?

A: Yes, it's done. *I could do it today.*

[* denotes ungrammatical for the situation]

=============



That's simply because that remains one of the "jobs" that COULD has retained in modern day English.

Notice that COULD can be used in situations to describe present and future events.

"I could do it yesterday, but I strained a muscle so I'm afraid that I couldn't do it for you even now."



But you will notice that you can say,

"He can't have done it yesterday!"

What is that CAN operating as the past tense of?

Can you tell us how you figured you could malign someone by describing them as Japanese?

Your racist gambit didn't work out so well for you, eh, C? So this is your "new" response.



Still not willing to take any responsibility for your gross dishonesty.

And there's McTag, aiding and abetting you, in spite of his insistence that he doesn't play favorites - he addresses things honestly and in a forthright fashion. And pigs fly.

That coming from you, McTag, is

He is Vinegar Joe Stilwell to my William Slim.

See how handsome is JTT:

Dishonest as all get out and a racist to boot.

Do you have any redeeming qualities, Contrex?

JTT still here, guaranteed to over-complicate and obscure any issue, hanging about like a bad smell from a malignancy.

Btw I remember a recent post from JTT, I can't be bothered to seek it out, where he claims to be only interested in answering questioners' points. Patently that is not true. He's only interested in maligning other posters, and trying (but failing) to impress all with how clever he is.

You're getting sillier and sillier, McTag. Notice how you changed to attack mode, when your ignorance Re: may/can for permission was pointed out, how you always change to attack mode when your ignorance on any language issue is pointed out.

Hardly an attack, more a rueful comment. JTT, this sorry shell of a man, how could he have sunk so low?

I think you are sick, and getting sicker.

The death-twitches of a vile insect that has been stepped on.

Show how these are points I've dreamed up, McTag.

The point at issue is that MJ says that modals have tense and here he is using a purported past tense modal not at all in that fashion.

You've got a lot of gall when it was you that stuck your nose in with your disparaging comments regarding 'miniscule'. Especially considering that you were, once again, highlighting your ignorance.

More bullshit from you, McTag. As you yourself noted, you disparage language you don't like. That's what has gotten you into this trouble - disparaging when you've made it abundantly clear that you don't know your ass from your elbow when it comes to how language works.

And you've got the racist Mr Dishonesty on your side. Where is that even handed McTag guy who addresses all things equally. That was just more of your BS.