# Dex, we're very unclear **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 16, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dex-were-very-unclear/344855 "2006-02-16T19:50:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dex-were-very-unclear/344855/181 "2006-02-22T07:08:48Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > You’ve made my day. Seriously. Everyone in this thread who didn’t give a damn about scansion and who now thinks it’s even a little bit interesting just brightens my life. By the way, I wanted to give you my compliments and express my utmost appreciation of your efforts at fighting ignorance in this thread. I haven’t taken a course on meter and scansion in something like six or seven years, and I found your posts to be a quality refresher course. It is absolutely delightful to see someone who is so helpful with her knowledge instead of using pseudo-expertise as a club without any attempt at elucidation. Kudos to you! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dex-were-very-unclear/344855/182 "2006-02-22T09:44:02Z")
> [@pseudotriton ruber ruber](#): > > One more example of your startling inability to read: I wrote that any school I “might” attend (the word in quotes is important–it denotes a very particular tense being employed, the conditional), not that any school that I did actually attend. I might, for example, attend school after I retire–perhaps I’ll take a course in formal debate, which is something I’ve always wanted to study. Conditionals are _not_ tenses, and your usage of “might” {…any school I might attend doesn’t have a “literacy magazine”} wasn’t a conditional; it was, if I remember my terminology, a modal auxiliary which denotes possibility. For “might” to be used conditionally, it would have to be qualified by an “if” {or “should”} clause: **1/ First Conditional** - a possible or likely future If it rains, I might catch cold **2/ Second Conditional** - an unrealised present or imaginary future a/ If it rained, I would catch cold b/ If I won the lottery, I might buy a boat **3/ Third Conditional** - an unrealised past If it had rained, I might have caught cold However, your original sentence fits none of these usages, and is thus not conditional. Further, in order to make it a modal auxiliary denoting future possibility, as you later suggested in the post that I quoted, you would need to change “doesn’t”: “any school I might attend may not have a literacy magazine.” would work. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dex-were-very-unclear/344855/183 "2006-02-22T12:15:37Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I do have to disagree with **Tracy** and **LHoD**. Three equally stressed syllables in a row is, I think, impossible in English. Something gets demoted or promoted, and it’s generally the middle syllable. Demoting the “like” leads to the double iamb or anapest situation I mentioned earlier. Demoting “Cor” causes all sorts of problems and is unlikely rhetorically. Demoting “stout” leads to straight IP. > > Stresses are relative, so it isn’t as though all weak stresses have to be exactly the same through the line. But one syllable will lose its punch when it’s next to other stressed syllables, and I think “stout” is the likely candidate. > > If you read the whole poem, you’ll be swept up in the rhythm of it and the line will fall pretty easily into IP. That makes sense. The line does read to me with strong stress on all three words, but slightly less stress on “Like.” I have not, however, read the entire poem, and I can certainly imagine that’d make a difference. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dex-were-very-unclear/344855/184 "2006-02-22T14:14:34Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > It is absolutely delightful to see someone who is so helpful with her knowledge instead of using pseudo-expertise as a club without any attempt at elucidation. > > Kudos to you! I obsess over poetry, really, so I’m fulfilling more of an **Evil Captor** role than a good teacher one. 😃 This stuff is just fun for me. So, er, thanks to everyone for not shooting me. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dex-were-very-unclear/344855/185 "2006-02-22T14:27:47Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I obsess over poetry, really, so I’m fulfilling more of an **Evil Captor** role than a good teacher one. 😃 > > This stuff is just fun for me. So, er, thanks to everyone for not shooting me. I’d like to add my thanks for your helpful information on a subject about which I knew almost nothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dex-were-very-unclear/344855.md?page=9)