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, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

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)