Randomness

[panyasan]

Did they stretch out again for you?

Next time just stretch them out while they're wet and let them dry on a line.

I hate tight pants.

Me too. I hate tight clothing to begin with, I am so glad the tight clothing fashion is over. The stretch them out when they are wet is a good idea.

[justTripn]

Jt -that was a weird evening - I kind of like deep conversations and discussions - but the guy that got into your space and flagging his finger sort of freaked me out only reading about it. Made me think about a guy who stalked me many years ago.
It makes my story about my shrinked jeans I was about to tell a bit lame in comparison. I have bought a new pair of jeans, but they are too long. So I washed them before adjusting, but the jeans shrinked at the wrong placed and I had to wiggle my way into the jeans and started walking around like the aliens form Galaxy Quest. When I asked my husband this morning if he like my new jeans, he said "They are very amusing - in the way you put them on this morning."

Ha!

[Entilzha]

I have a question for the members. Has anyone been to Panama before? My mom is going in a couple of weeks and I thought if someone from the board has been there before has some travel advice that I could pass on.

[Alelou]

Okay, I'm taking a poll among the Americans at least. When you studied grammar in school, do you remember being taught about "modals"? These would be words like must/could/should that would change the modality of the verb in a sentence. Or did you just learn about "auxiliary verbs" or "helping verbs"?

I was taught about "modals" in sixth grade in Tampa, Florida and then never heard the terms again. The textbook I used when I taught high school English also never referred to them. But they've popped up again in the college grammar textbook.

I know the terminology exists in serious linguistics, but I'm surprised to see it in a practical grammar text. I had assumed this was like something out of "new math" that became the educational fashion for awhile and then disappeared, even though I do think it offers some advantages (if I felt like teaching the parts of speech all over again in freshman year, which I don't).

Thus, the poll. To you, is this famliar or unfamiliar terminology?

[WarpGirl]

OK I don't remember it but I freely admit Grammar not something I learned well. Mama said I learned in class but didn't learn it to remember. I'm ashamed.

[Distracted]

I was really into grammar in high school. Four years of English Rally and all that jazz. This was 30 years ago, mind you, but I've never heard of the term "modals". And my HS English teacher was really old school. She was a woman with over 30 years experience teaching HS English. To prepare me for Rally she used to have me diagram sentences. I learned intransitive verbs by singing a little filk song she composed to the tune of "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley. She used that tune because the song was on the radio the year she began teaching and all of her students knew the tune. She never mentioned modals, so "modal" must be a newer term, I would think. At least new in the past 30 years.

[WarpGirl]

I SHOULD have been really into grammar in High School, what an idiot I was.

[Distracted]

Here's a chance to catch up:

"The Intransitive Verb Song"
Words by Ernestine Moss (To the tune of "Love Me Tender")

"Be, am, is, are, was, were, been,
Come, seem, and appear,
Sit, lie, rise" completes the list
Of intransitive verbs.

They never take objects, no they never take objects!
They never, ever, ever take objects.
They never take objects, no they never take objects!
They take predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives.

(Hey, I never said it scanned properly. )

[Alelou]

I think your teacher must have had a real passion for her subject. (And maybe for Elvis too.)

I've tried searching the academic databases with this question but I'm coming up blank, which may just be a sign that I suck at Boolean searches (or that nobody else in the universe cares about this). It seems to be a term more commonly used in ESL instruction and perhaps in other countries, but not so much here.

I should probably just go straight to the textbook company table of contents and see what I can find.

[Bether6074]

Okay, I'm taking a poll among the Americans at least. When you studied grammar in school, do you remember being taught about "modals"? These would be words like must/could/should that would change the modality of the verb in a sentence. Or did you just learn about "auxiliary verbs" or "helping verbs"?

To be completely honest I don't specifically remember any of that stuff. I do remember that I could never apply the rules and understand. I do, however, have some kind of instinct about most of it. I'll usually know when something is wrong with a sentence, but I might not be sure what specific rule is being broken or how best to fix it. Usually I keep adjusting my sentences until they sound right. I do have a handbook for when I was beta-ing stories. Modality of a verb?

Is your house warm yet?

[Alelou]

You mean, did we finally get our oil? Yes, finally, though it's a good thing I called and nagged AGAIN since they were going to wait another week.

[Bether6074]

Glad you're warm. Nagging pays off sometimes.

[Distracted]

Here's a good summary of modals. Most of the terminology is news to me, although I recognize correct usage because it sounds right. Apparently the terms have always been around but were considered too complex a topic to cover in high school.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-MODALVERB.html

[Alelou]

Yes, I've found a number of links for English as spoken outside the US and to ESL instruction especially. Just not a whole lot here.

It makes it seem even more peculiar to me that I learned it in sixth grade. That really must have been a bit of a fluke. When we moved across the bay to Clearwater and a different school system, I remember wondering what happened to the modals. I was a little annoyed since it was something I had learned very well and actually thought was kind of neat.

Of course, it didn't help that the grammar and spelling teacher in Clearwater was an awful fat man who picked his toes in class and mostly just wanted to know whether we had accepted Christ as our personal savior.

Using these modal verbs or auxiliary verbs correctly is not really something my native-speaking students have trouble with, so it hardly matters -- it's just one more peculiarity of our current textbook, which we've been asked to vote up or down for next year.

[Aquarius]

Okay, I'm taking a poll among the Americans at least. When you studied grammar in school, do you remember being taught about "modals"? These would be words like must/could/should that would change the modality of the verb in a sentence. Or did you just learn about "auxiliary verbs" or "helping verbs"?

I was taught about "modals" in sixth grade in Tampa, Florida and then never heard the terms again. The textbook I used when I taught high school English also never referred to them. But they've popped up again in the college grammar textbook.

I know the terminology exists in serious linguistics, but I'm surprised to see it in a practical grammar text. I had assumed this was like something out of "new math" that became the educational fashion for awhile and then disappeared, even though I do think it offers some advantages (if I felt like teaching the parts of speech all over again in freshman year, which I don't).

Thus, the poll. To you, is this famliar or unfamiliar terminology?

We weren't taught modals in middle school (though we just talked about it a bit a couple of weeks ago in linguistics class), just the "helping verbs" .