@SMickey,
Quote:It definitely is a big shock to hear that 'would' is not the past tense of 'will'.
A great number of Koreans who have learned English would feel exactly the same as I did. I gotta print this out and read it one by one carefully.
I know that the world's ESL/EFLs have all been taught that the modal verbs have tense, SMickey, but it's simply not true. Have you read those threads I pointed you to?
MIGHT is also not the past tense of MAY, nor is SHALL the past tense of SHOULD, or COULD the past of CAN.
I've been teaching ESL for a quarter century and this is one of the biggest confusions faced by students. Modal verbs are difficult enough as it is, but when ESLs are misled with these silly notions it makes it near to impossible to become fluent.
I had some of my Japanese students travel with me to North America and they were puzzled by me saying such things as,
Tomorrow we might go canoeing/ The day after tomorrow we might go hiking/ ... .
They were so confused. They asked, "Why do you say "might" to talk about future things when MIGHT is the past tense of MAY".
Long before that I heard students use COULD as a past tense of CAN and they produced ungrammatical English.
Quote:How can I thank you enough, JTT? I'm so gratetful.
Would it be all right to feel free to ask you some more questions?
Thanks a million.
You just did thank me. And you're welcome, SMickey.
You go ahead and ask me any questions you want.