Given Herb's and Bob's posts, how do members feel about the following four: Today, adolescents may leave school at 15. Today, adolescents can leave school at 15 In the 30s, adolescents might leave school at 14. In the 30s, adolescents could leave school at 14. To me, they appear to be counter-examples to the implicit claim (not necessarily by Herb) in Herb's following comment 'There are some interesting theoretical treatments of the tenselessness of main clause modals that I won't go into here.' However, it's not a subject that I've studied so I look forward to further enlightening posts from Herb and Bob. One interesting sidelight more to do with the problems of francophones learning English is the following. They have to be taught that it is incorrect in English to say, 'Yesterday, I could run the distance in 10 seconds' referring to an actual running of the race. Ron Sheen To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/