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May - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
- Polski
May - English Grammar Today-Cambridge Dictionary- punkt...
- English (US)
May - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and...
- Polski
- David Crystal's Take
- Beware and Begone
- The Defective Copula Is
- George Campbell on The Defective Verb 'Ought'
- Discussions of Defective Verbs in 19Th-Century School Grammars
- A List of Defective Verbs
- Various Discussions on Defective Verbs
"In grammar, [defective is] a traditional description of words which do not display all the rules of the class to which they belong. The English modal verbs, for example, are defective in that they do not permit the usual range of verb forms, such as an infinitive or participle forms (*to may, *shalling, etc.). Because of its pejorative connotation...
"Some verbs are termed defective; they are such as want some of the parts ordinarily ascribed to verbs. Beware is a defective verb being used only in the imperative or to give a caution. . . . Begone may be accounted another defective verb like beware. Begone is a compound, made up of be and gone, that is get away; and beware is composed of be and ...
"A defective verb is one which has not all the usual verbal forms. Is, the copula, is irregular. It is also defective as it has no imperative or autonomous forms, no verbal noun or verbal adjective." (Irish-English/English-Irish Easy Reference Dictionary. Roberts Rinehart, 1998)
"[I]n order to express the past with the defective verb ought, we must use the perfect of the infinitive, and say for example, 'he ought to have done it'; this in that verb being the only possible way of distinguishing the past from the present." (George Campbell, The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Volume 1, 1776)
"What do you mean by a Defective Verb? "A Defective Verb is a Verb that is imperfect; that is, that cannot be conjugated through all the Moods and Tenses; such as the Verb Ought, which has just been repeated. "Which are the Defective Verbs? "The Auxiliary Verbs are in general defective, because they have not any Participles; neither do they admit a...
Defective verbs are those that can be used only in some particular modes and tenses. They are few in number and are as follows: 1. am 2. been 3. can 4. could 5. may 6. might 7. shall 8. should 9. was 10. will 11. would
"Love is not a defective verb; you can use it in any mood and tense. You can say, I love, I loved, I have loved, I had loved, I shall or will love, I shall have loved, I may, can or must love: but can is a defective verb. You can say I can, but you cannot say I have can, I had can, I shall can or will can, I may can, or must can." (J.H. Hull, Lectu...
2 days ago · May is now a defective verb. It has no infinitive, no past participle, and no future tense. Forms of to be allowed to are used to replace these missing tenses. The simple past (both indicative and subjunctive) of may is might.
may. 'may' is the model of its conjugation. This defective modal helping verb exists only in the present and preterit tenses. It is followed by a main verb in the bare infinitive, or by [ have + past participle]. Both the present and the preterit may be used in combination with [ have + past participle] to express a guess or a possibility about ...
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Is May a defective verb?
What does defective mean in grammar?
What is the difference between auxiliary verb and defective verb?
Are modal verbs defective?
Defective Verbs. A Defective Verb is one that is not used in all the Moods and Tenses as, must, ought and quoth. Auxiliary Verbs = Helping Verbs. An Auxiliary Verb is one which helps to form the Moods and Tenses of other verbs. The auxiliary verbs are - shall, may, can, must, be, do, have and will. Remarks on The Auxiliary Verbs.
May and Might are modal verbs. They can normally be interchanged without a significant difference in meaning. I might go. I may go. May and Might more or less have the same meaning. (We will see more about this later) With modals verbs, there is only one form of them for every subject pronoun. For example with the modal verb MIGHT.
Defective verb. In linguistics, a defective verb is a verb that either lacks a conjugated form or entails incomplete conjugation, and thus cannot be conjugated for certain grammatical tenses, aspects, persons, genders, or moods that the majority of verbs or a "normal" or regular verb in a particular language can be conjugated for [citation ...
