English is not my first language, as you know
But I learnt at school that the 2nd conditional (not subjunctives) doesn't use was, but were, although it's flexible and you can decide what to use.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:22, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

you know more than me FACT

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:24, Reply)

It's not hard though really is it

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:30, Reply)

I'm pretty sure Oscar the Otter
had a better grasp of the English language than me. Before I flushed him to death.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:36, Reply)

Thing is, you probably learnt more grammar in your English lessons than I did
I was never taught the subjunctive - the only reason I know anything about it is from studying Latin and French _{(in which I try to find ways to crowbar it into conversation in a pathetic attempt to make French people think that I can speak their language passably well)}.
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:24, Reply)

You were never taught subjunctive
Because you don't have subjunctive, you have 4 conditionals.

We learnt a lot of grammar at School, both for English and Spanish, and I find very difficult to believe that someone can learn and understand a second language properly without knowing the grammar of his own mother tongue.

I know almost all of your rules (you don't have many), but then I don't use them properly as we were taught all the theory but practised very little.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:28, Reply)

I don't know any of the rules.
I have no idea what anyone is talking about and I'm going to try and learn Spanish. I'm doomed.
( girlinthehole, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:29, Reply)

Spanish is based in grammar
You can learn sentences and you might be able to understand people around, but without the grammar you won't be able to talk it properly.

The main problem I had when teaching Spanish to Mark is that he didn't know English grammar, so I had to start teaching him that to then compare with Spanish's
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:34, Reply)

I might start learning English grammer first then : /

( girlinthehole, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:35, Reply)

Your grammer is very easy
Only a few rules. It'll be good if you can clearly understand what's a verb, noun, adjective, preposition, conjunction...; if you can tell the times of the verbs and if you know what conditional, reflexive and passive are. It won't take you long.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:39, Reply)

Like Crow I know most of my grammar in English from Latin
though I had a grammar stickler of a father who would constantly correct me until I said things correctly. Though his father learnt English as a second language, so I guess he might have been constantly corrected as a child too.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:36, Reply)

I think it's the best way of understanding a language
and the people who speaks it. Why you only have 3 tenses for the past and we have 8; or why you don't need subjunctive, but have 4 conditional forms...
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:40, Reply)

You see I have no clue how many conditionals we have
I know (ancient) Greek has 6- and I can understand that. It's nice and simple: past, present and future, and open and closed for each. I just wouldn't be able to tell you what the kinds of conditionals we have :(
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:42, Reply)

You have 4
Although one is only considered half conditional, because it's something that'll happen for sure:

zero: If the sun comes out, the birds sing (certain)
first: If the sun comes out, I'll visit you (almost certain)
second: If I were a richman, I would buy a car (possible, but unlikely)
third: If I had been born rich, I would have had an helicopter (impossible)
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:47, Reply)

Ah I see, that's a bit like open and closed in Greek
Open is possible, closed is unlikely (also known as remote)

Of course you can have mixed, but I think that's only mixed tenses not mixed type. Shit I need to brush up on my Greek :(
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:48, Reply)

I don't think you can mix much in English
You can change If for When sometimes, though.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:49, Reply)

Our rather bored French teacher taught it to us in the dead weeks when we'd finished the GCSE course
about 4 months ahead of schedule. We also translated French rap and attempted to watch Les Choristes without subtitles.

Of course, I can't remember any of it. Apart from "Il faut que j'aie..." etc.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:34, Reply)

the only reason
I passed French was not a good one. It's as close as I've come to ever cheating on anything, but the teacher insisted
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:37, Reply)

What did you have to do?
I was considered a bit of a failure as I didn't get 95% or above in GCSE (told you my school was crazy)

I instead got 95% or above in my English Literature one -smugs-
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:40, Reply)

I was shit at French
it was the one subject where an A or A* just wasn't even possible. I could do alright on the reading/writing bit, but the listening/speaking was really difficult for me, I had an absolute mental block. So my teacher paused the oral tape and scrawled on the bit of paper some notes for me to look at (the bare bones of sentences for me to fill in)
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:42, Reply)

We were relentlessly prepared for that
Given a list of every single question that could conceivably asked on each of the 6 topics, and told we had to compose answers to each and learn them.

I guess that's as much cheating as yours, but further in advance.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:44, Reply)

I felt really bad about it
especially since I ended up with a B. But I couldn't tell anyone because the teacher could've got into a lot of trouble. Especially since my dad was deputy head
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:45, Reply)

We'll never mention it again
-fingers to lips-
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:46, Reply)

*swears oath of silence*
how's the room decorating going?
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:47, Reply)

So far it's just the amazing picture of my parents
Put in a place where I can see it , but just tucked out of sight (hopefully) from my bed (as that's just WEIRD)

I've cut lots of things out, from years ago. Should be looking better as soon as I decide to make an effort and stand up
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:50, Reply)

Sounds good
My room is my sisters old room, and I can't be bothered decorating- I've never really got the point of posters etc. So her 30 seconds to Mars and My Chemical Romance posters are still up alongside one Kandinsky poster that is mine
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:53, Reply)

I cut loads of things out of our house diary
(always has amazing pictures in) My mum also sends me clippings and pictures she thinks I'll like. There's also the photo of my dad pretending to be a walrus with two bananas in his mouth.

Mmm, Jared Leto.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:56, Reply)

I had the best french oral ever (not that kind)
We had our G.C.S.E oral in a little cupboard at the back of the classroom and everybody had to sit outside and wait for the turn. I went after Guy Cox, as it was done alphabetically. Now Guy was a great friend of mine at school and I knew he had done no revision and wasn't great at French so was bracing myself for something funny to happen. He didn't let me down. Mrs Goldsmith asked him something in French I can't remember exactly but I think it was along the lines of 'what are you going to do in the summer?'

To which Guy replied 'My name is Guy and I like to play football' in English with the best French Allo Allo accent ever. He was in there for about a minute. And yeah he failed.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 10:48, Reply)