I followed some links earlier today and jill/txt not only pointed out how to fake french, but also lead me to rediscover how fun it actually is to try to figure out how grammar works.
Okay, spare me the kamatis. I know this was such a geeky thing to say. But hey, this is my blog, yo. To illustrate, here is the original statement:
Si je te dire que je t'aime.
This roughly translates to "If I tell you that I love you.." But there are complications. Not just of tense but of possible meanings depending on what tense and combination you use:
"..which is almost certainly wrong, because dire is in the infinitive, that's not right. I think I need to use the conditional here. I'm doing conditionnel present, because the others are just too hard. 'If I were to tell you that I loved you', or 'If I had told you that I loved you', see, I can do that in English (and you English-speakers, just appreciate that that is inCREDibly advanced grammar, there!) no, no, but I can do 'If I tell you that I love you' and.."
You can read the rest of her explanation here. What I'm just saying is that language has infinite possibilites. Who knew that all those meanings are possible if you use the conditional present etc etc?
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