Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith Talk Forums General Topics Q&A about words If you can snatch the pebble from my shoe ...
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
These periphrastic† (how's *that for a word) verbs don't always make a whole lot of sense but are often more widespread than one might think. For example the future in to go, as in, 'I'm going to explain in a footnote what I meant by periphrastic' is common enough in English and also in the Romance languages. The same is true of using have got or just have to indicate compulsion. Spanish uses tener in the same sense.
†Periphrasis is the use of a bunch of words rather than a single inflected word. Again in Spanish one could say voy a dejar, 'I'm going to quit' instead of dejaré (1st person singular future of dejar, to quit).
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,916Posts230,340Members9,209 Most Online4,606
Sep 17th, 2025
Newest Members Peripatetic Toad, JerryC, blvd, Tony Hood, Wood Delivery
9,209 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 10
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 11,180tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,974Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith Talk