There are two futures in English. Most textbooks pretend there is only one. Students are told: “Will is the future. Shall is old-fashioned.”Simple. Clean. Convenient. And completely misleading. Because will and shall do not merely describe time.They describe force. They describe who decides. They describe where the power sits — inside the speaker or outside […]
Tymur Levitin
Why “Must” Isn’t Something You Do “A modal verb doesn’t tell you what’s happening.It tells you what the speaker feels should be happening.”— Tymur Levitin Author’s Column — Tymur Levitin on Language, Meaning, and RespectPart of the series: Grammar Is Meaning, Not Rules Modality Is Not About the Verb — It’s About the Speaker In our previous […]
Tymur Levitin
Why It’s Not About Rules — But About Attitude “We don’t just say something. We say how we feel about what we say.”— Tymur Levitin Author’s Column — Tymur Levitin on Language, Meaning, and RespectPart of the series: Grammar Is Meaning, Not Rules Why Students Struggle with Modality They often memorize that can, must, and might are “modal verbs.”But […]
Tymur Levitin
