Oh no! Not more ruddy piano

[JimD]

we were told that "amo" could mean "I love, I am loving" or "I do love". It all depended on the context.

I'm sure you are all loving this (can this be said otherwise with retention of the sense?)...but here's more...in a conversation with my daughter on precisely these three possibilities she claimed that 'I do love' was not a tense but a 'construction', and that 'love' when used thus was the infinitive. I had thought the infinitive was 'to love' but decided not to press the point for fear of humiliation.

[BBMmk2]

Amo! Amas amt amavero amaveris?? :)

[mangerton]

I'm sure you are all loving this (can this be said otherwise with retention of the sense?)...but here's more...in a conversation with my daughter on precisely these three possibilities she claimed that 'I do love' was not a tense but a 'construction', and that 'love' when used thus was the infinitive. I had thought the infinitive was 'to love' but decided not to press the point for fear of humiliation.

She might very well be right. It could be regarded as a construction, and infinitives don't always have "to".

On your last point I have to agree with you. I have found it is usually unwise to argue with daughters.

[mercia]

I have to agree with you.

surely no compulsion ?

[Resurrection Man]

Can we have an English Grammar thread and please get back on topic ?

[Pianorak]

Can we have an English Grammar thread and please get back on topic ?

Why? You made your position perfectly clear in #1 - no further elaboration needed!

[mangerton]

surely no compulsion ?

With my pedantry hat on, I'd have to agree with you, too. There is, generally speaking, no compulsion, but we were discussing the special case where daughters are concerned, and compulsion probably applies there.

[teamsaint]

I am just catching up with this thread....or indeed I have just caught up with it, and feel I must put in my twopence worth. Feel free to leave now.

As you are still here.....

Back in the days when I were a lad and being taught Latin (some people say that was only a year or two after it was still being spoken), we were told that "amo" could mean "I love, I am loving" or "I do love". It all depended on the context. So, like Alice, I must declare you are all correct, and all deserve a prize.

I'm not sure that "ane" (at least as an opposite of "inane") and "ept" exist as words, apt though they might be. They bring to mind this quote from the masterly PGW:

I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.

To paraphrase the late Great Ken Wolstenholme....."They do now !!"