Reply to “They need cleaned up”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't mind slang and regional speak, but I don't like this phrasing, because I get confused at what's being said. Past tense, present tense? I wouldn't know what to think.[/quote]

It's future imperfect continuous. [/quote]

No way dude it's Subjunctive[/quote]

Without to be, it is subjunctive. With to be, it is future imperfect continuous. OP isn't familiar with the subjunctive and needs a familiar tense to process the sentence.[/quote]

Oh I see what you are saying. I also enjoy the construction I heard from someone in NC "Oh I used'ta could" meaning I used to be able to do something. [/quote]

I'm the original PP and I love when a grammar "argument" breaks out.  :)  I'm in STEM and don't have a deep understanding of some of these tenses so I'll be looking them up. And to the person who asked if I wouldn't understand what was meant if someone handed me a dish, yes I would, but I think my brain would freeze for a moment, before I took the dish. It's just my familiarity with the phrase.
[/quote]

I am in the E in STEM. Even perfect English grammar is ambiguous in many respects. I also work with ESL coworkers, so insisting on perfect grammar is really quite pointless. Part of being an English speaker is knowing when something is "good enough." Even some programming languages, despite their seeming rigidity, have ambiguous constructs that are implemented inconsistently. If you want something that is completely unambiguous, I believe the only choice is mathematical proofs. [/quote]

It's not about perfect grammar so much as making sure the person you are speaking with can understand what is being said. Using bizarre regional constructs, idioms, and colloquialism doesn't really help in that effort when someone's first language isn't English. [/quote]

That's my point. Perfect grammar is likely to be confusing. Why do we need the "helper" verb to be? It's making the subjunctive tense into some imperfect tense. You have no idea which exists in the foreign speakers language. So keep the helper words to a minimum. How would I write the sentence for an ESL: They need cleaning. Clean up is an idiom that doesn't translate. Up to where? [/quote]

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