English verb conjugation

[ChrisGreaves]

I write
"the spreadsheet has a sub-total which tells me how much ..." and then I think "Not so; I have not yet proved that the spreadsheet works correctly", so I rewrite it as
"the spreadsheet has a sub-total which should tell me how much ...".
Why do I drop that trailing "s"?
The trailing "s" usually indicates the Third Person Singular; "I walk, you walk, He walks"
In the second version, I am still referring to The Spreadsheet, third person singular.
Apparently "should" is a form of conditional, or is an auxiliary verb, but I shall lose sleep tonight worrying about that "s".


And please don't reply "Chris you should not worry about this". A negative only makes things worse!
Miserably yours
Chris

[HansV]

The main verb in the second sentence is "should", not "tell". Should is a modal verb.

From Modal Verbs:

Modal verbs do not take "-s" in the third person

[stuck]

And I should tell you that it really isn't worth losing sleep over.

[ChrisGreaves]

The main verb in the second sentence is "should", not "tell". Should is a modal verb. ...

Modal verbs do not take "-s" in the third person

Well that really ruined my pre-sleep book-read in bed last night!

So now, in my mind, a Modal verb is quite strong, and over-rides the conjugation of the verb ("to tell"), which in a way makes sense. There's not much point (as a modal verb) in being dragged into the conversation unless you have some impact, right?

My background to this is that English, I claim, has no future tense, and all English verbs can be mastered by remembering "Third Person Singular carries an 's'". There's none of that futuro and imperfecto de subjunctivo nonsense that we find in Spanish. And French. Just "walk" and "walks" and a handful of auxiliaries and we're done. Hurrah!

20240129_082214.jpg

Now another problem presents itself. I was going to use the Spanish for "to conjugate" in my example, since I am discussing conjugation, but I can't find "conjugar" in either my dictionary or either of my 501/555 Spanish verbs books. Also it's difficult to use Google to search for the verb "To Conjugate" in Spanish.

Back to "self-testing spreadsheets" for me.
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

And I should tell you that it really isn't worth losing sleep over.

And that's another thought that delayed my sleep last night ...
Cheers, Chris