Bobby_TP_#12

This past Friday I tutored Joey on the use of the if clause plus the conditional and the use of shall, may, will, and can. We began with a few exercises that made use of shall and will. I explained to her that shall is used only with “I” and “we”, and that it is hardly used in speech anymore. If it is used it is used more formally, though often in facetious way. Knowing what personal pronouns to use shall with, she made it through the shall vs. will exercise easily. The next one we did together was may vs. can. I explained that may is used for permission and that can is used for ability. I gave the cliché example of the student asking if he or she can use the bathroom, teacher asking, “I don’t know, can you?”, and the student’s response of, “May I go to the bathroom?”. She understood this easily as well. I still had to help her out a little with the exercises, but we didn't hit a wall like we did with the gerund and to – infinitive. To my surprise, she also did exceedingly well on the if clause à conditional exercises. She was presented with a multiple choice selection and had to choose the correct conditional. I explained that when the simple present is used in the if clause, the simple future will be used in the dependent clause. If the simple past was used in the if clause, the conditional would or could would be used in the dependent clause. If have or had + past participle were used in the if clause, conditional + have + past participle would be used in the dependent clause. She understood all of these concepts, and I left extensive notes in her notebook explaining it all. We touched briefly on the subjunctive as well. I told her that most people don’t know how to use the subjunctive tense, and a man waiting for his coffee inside Starbucks with us unsolicitedly agreed.