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

88 [eighty-eight] Past tense of modal verbs 2

My son did not want to play with the doll.	My son did not want to play with the doll.
My daughter did not want to play football / soccer (am.).	My daughter did not want to play football / soccer (am.).
My wife did not want to play chess with me.	My wife did not want to play chess with me.
My children did not want to go for a walk.	My children did not want to go for a walk.
They did not want to tidy the room.	They did not want to tidy the room.
They did not want to go to bed.	They did not want to go to bed.
He was not allowed to eat ice cream.	He was not allowed to eat ice cream.
He was not allowed to eat chocolate.	He was not allowed to eat chocolate.
He was not allowed to eat sweets.	He was not allowed to eat sweets.
I was allowed to make a wish.	I was allowed to make a wish.
I was allowed to buy myself a dress.	I was allowed to buy myself a dress.
I was allowed to take a chocolate.	I was allowed to take a chocolate.
Were you allowed to smoke in the airplane?	Were you allowed to smoke in the airplane?
Were you allowed to drink beer in the hospital?	Were you allowed to drink beer in the hospital?
Were you allowed to take the dog into the hotel?	Were you allowed to take the dog into the hotel?
During the holidays the children were allowed to remain outside late.	During the holidays the children were allowed to remain outside late.
They were allowed to play in the yard for a long time.	They were allowed to play in the yard for a long time.
They were allowed to stay up late.	They were allowed to stay up late.

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…