English US » Catalan | 88 [eighty-eight] | Past tense of modal verbs 2

88 [vuitanta-vuit] Passat dels verbs modals 2

My son did not want to play with the doll.	El meu fill no volia jugar amb nines.
My daughter did not want to play football / soccer (am.).	La meva filla no volia jugar a futbol.
My wife did not want to play chess with me.	La meva dona no va voler jugar amb mi als escacs.
My children did not want to go for a walk.	Els meus fills no van voler fer una passejada.
They did not want to tidy the room.	Ells no volien endreçar l’habitació.
They did not want to go to bed.	Ells no volien anar al llit.
He was not allowed to eat ice cream.	Ell no podia menjar gelats.
He was not allowed to eat chocolate.	Ell no podia menjar xocolata.
He was not allowed to eat sweets.	Ell no podia menjar caramels.
I was allowed to make a wish.	Em podia desitjar alguna cosa.
I was allowed to buy myself a dress.	Em vaig poder comprar un vestit.
I was allowed to take a chocolate.	Vaig poder prendre un bombó de praliné.
Were you allowed to smoke in the airplane?	Que podies fumar a l’avió?
Were you allowed to drink beer in the hospital?	Que podies beure cervesa a l’hospital?
Were you allowed to take the dog into the hotel?	Que podies portar el gos a l’hotel?
During the holidays the children were allowed to remain outside late.	Durant les vacances, els nens podien estar a fora fins tard.
They were allowed to play in the yard for a long time.	Podien jugar molt de temps al pati.
They were allowed to stay up late.	Podien quedar-se desperts fins tard.

Babies can learn grammar rules

Children grow up very quickly. And they also learn very quickly! It has yet to be researched how children learn. Learning processes take place automatically. Children don't notice when they are learning. Nevertheless, every day they are capable of more. This also becomes clear with language. Babies can only cry in the first few months. With a few months they can say short words. Then sentences are created from those words. Eventually the children speak their native language. Unfortunately, that doesn't work in the case of adults. They need books or other material in order to learn. Only this way can they learn grammar rules, for example. Babies, however, learn grammar as early as four months old! Researchers taught German babies foreign grammar rules. In order to do this, they played Italian sentences aloud to them. These sentences contained certain syntactical structures. The babies listened to the correct sentences for about fifteen minutes. Afterwards, sentences were played for the babies again. This time, however, a few of the sentences were incorrect. While the babies listened to the sentences, their brainwaves were measured. This way the researchers could identify how the brain reacted to sentences. And the babies showed different levels of activity with the sentences! Although they had just learned them, they registered the mistakes. Naturally, babies do not understand why some sentences are wrong. They orient themselves toward phonetic patterns. But that is enough to learn a language – at least for babies…