All Questions
15 questions
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Tensed infinitives across languages
As the Latin language shows, infinitives can be marked for tense (amare - present, amavisse - perfect).
English also shows that: to love, to have loved.
Can anyone suggest any literature regarding the ...
- 451
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Relation Between Unreal & Past Tense Forms
Background
I am learning English grammar. Having been confused about modal usage, I decided to pick out a book on the subject, coming to "Modality and the English Modals" by F. R. Palmer. In ...
- 109
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1
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Past Simple vs Present Perfect Continuous in questions [closed]
It is my first ask in this forum. I am not sure about proper grammar usage, so I want to ask someone who knows it well.
If I want to ask a person for a duration of time he has worked at the specific ...
1
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4
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1k
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Why does Spanish have obsolete tenses?
In Spanish, there are a few tenses that exist but are almost never used in daily life, like the subjunctive future and future perfect tenses. They are only utilized in legal documents and older pieces ...
- 141
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Example of a tenseless sentence
I just learned about Tenseless languages, such as Chinese. But I'm interested to see what this looks like and/or means.
For example, wondering if one could write a tenseless sentence in English and ...
- 4,438
7
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Are there languages where the tense depends on time elapsed between events?
In all the languages I am familiar with (mostly English and my native German as well as some rudimentary Italian and French, so all somewhat related.), the tense of a verb only indicates the time of ...
- 173
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2
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193
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Is there a name for the tense some Romance languages used to use for stories?
I've seen it before, but I don't know what it would be called. I know that some of the Romance languages used to have a specific tense used only for stories (at least, fictional ones). They're no ...
user19661
1
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1
answer
408
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Are there languages with tense that lack a pluperfect?
This is something I've been thinking about. It would be rather hard to tell a story without using a pluperfect. I know there are languages that lack tense, like Chinese, but what about languages that ...
user19661
9
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5
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379
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Are there any known natural languages in which tense is never (or very rarely) expressed through the modification of verbs?
I should probably confess up front that I don't have a great deal of knowledge of foreign languages, but I have lately taken a strong interest in the structure and nature of language, and have spent a ...
1
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1
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293
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Lithuanian possessive perfect
Can someone explain what exactly the 'possessive perfect' is? The book I read gave the following example:
Turiu atsinešęs maisto.
have:PRS.1SG bring:PTCP.PST.ACT.NOM.SG....
- 75
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2
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"Please to be <VERB>ing" in Indian english
I've noticed this form being used by English speakers from India. In standard English the infinitive form of "to be" is not normally combined with verbs modified with "-ing" (normally used for ...
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5
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Do auxiliary verbs always express different aspect/mood/tense?
Do auxiliary verbs always serve to express a mood or aspect that is different from simple indicative (or a tense)? Or are there cases where a sentence is in simple-indicative-present with the presence ...
- 161
2
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0
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57
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Tenses/Voices that show whether something is finite or not
Are there any languages which have a tense or voice that shows whether something is finite.
For this example only I will indicate in the present tense that something is finitely true by adding an &...
- 607
11
votes
4
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780
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Relationship between possession ("to have") and tenses ("I have seen")
In several Indo-European languages the verb that denotes possession (to have) is also used to construct verb tenses.
Some examples:
I have seen ... I have a dog. (English)
Am văzut ... Am un câine. (...
- 704
4
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1
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396
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How is the hesternal past, crastinal future etc. conveyed?
Hesternal Past tense describes an event occurred yesterday (in an absolute tense system) or the day preceding the day under consideration (in a relative system) and the crastinal future describes and ...
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