[etni] Re: An interesting grammatical observation
- From: Michele Ben <mggben@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: laurie ornstein <laurenmadeline@xxxxxxxxx>, ETNI <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:15:05 +0200
Laurie - I'm not asking anything. I just thought this was an interesting
posting.
I have no doubt that using grammar properly makes our language more
comprehensible. I learned English in the US as a native speaker and use the
perfect tenses properly, for the most part. I know this beause my children,
who speak English with me and with no one else, use the perfect tenses
properly. However, I will add that I had no idea that there was such a
thing as a perfect tense or aspect until I started helping the younger
siblings of my friends with their English homework when I first came to
Israel. I also only learned the terms "modals" and "conditionals" when I
began teaching EFL. But I also know that language is in constant flux and
often there is no black and white ...unless you're Lynne Truss.
Michele
On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 7:58 PM, laurie ornstein
<laurenmadeline@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> In response to Michele's question regarding the use of "did" (and not
> "had") in the "third conditon"....
>
> When is the last time you were in the US? Americans, for the most part,
> have no idea of which tenses go with which conditions...let alone using
> "were" and not "was" in the 2nd condtion! And I'm talking about educated
> speakers!
>
> Laurie
>
>
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