On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 17:37:33 +0200, "Klaus Dieckmann"
<klaus.dieckmann@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>"Padraic Brown" schrieb
>>> Why do the numbers switch to Sanskrit for the 10s? Then Greek for six
>>> and the hundreds?
>
>I thought about that, it is not necessary. In my next web update there
will
>be:
>
>10 = deca
>100 = centa
>
>6 = hexa because of latin 6 = *** is different in international use!
I wasn't aware it was used for a different number in other languages.
>> All that aside, "perfect" is still not a tense. ;)
>
>Why not?
A tense describes only the time an action happens in -- for example,
present or past. An aspect describes some quality of the action, such
as its completion or incompletion.
For example, we have a number of perfect tenses and a number of
imperfect tenses:
perf. impf.
past had sung had been singing
pres have sung am singing
fut will have s. will have been singing
Notice that all the perfects describe completed actions, while the
imperfects describe ongoing, incomplete actions.
There are many, many aspects that any given tense may take. They
really can add considerable richness to a language!
>It is the action between past and present tense.
?? The English verbal system isn't the best one to use (cos it doesn't
fit with the Latin terminology all that well), but if an action is
"between" the past and the present, then it isn't present. And anyway,
aspect doesn't even describe when the action takes place.
Of course, you could certainly come up with a non-past, non-present
term for such betwixt tenses!
>Future II is the future far beyond of sure exspectation, has a doubtful
>meaning "perhaps".
Subjunctive. That's a mood. ;) We use (perhaps used would be more
correct) the past subjunctive, in English, for this kind of future
speculation. A classic example (and one of a few where you can see the
modal difference) is "If I were you, I would do such-and-such."
Clearly, the action takes place in the future, because we're talking
about it in the present; yet "were" is a past tense verb, in this
case, 1st person, past subjunctive.
>If you have more questions I 'll try to answer.
I think your language's verbal system will bear closer inspection.
I'll be taking another look at it!
Padraic
>Greetings
>
>Klaus
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