>>That much is clear - it's the past tenses where I have a problem.
>
>Well give me an example of whjat puzzles you and I'll see if I can enlighten you. You've one of the best commands of English on the whole UT! :-)

How do I know? If I knew, I'd be using them right :). It's the cases where you caught me using them wrongly that puzzled me.

>There's the verb used as an adjectival clause, a gerundive, e.g. amo, ams, amat - amanda: he/she who must be loved - a weird one!

Actually "the one to be loved", or "that should be". Just like "legenda" is "[stuff] to be read" (neutral, plural, nominative case), or "agenda" is "to be done". This type of construct is entirely missing in other languages that I know of.

Russian has a few nice constructs - like the one on the badge I found on an airport, probably lost by some sailor: "pereshedshemu ekvator" - "to the one who crossed over the equator". There's an equivalent form in Serbian but it's not used that much or that easily.

Hungarian has a few nice constructs - you can insert a "-hat-" or "-het-" infix after the first and before other suffixes, and the verb becomes "can be ~ed". For example "segít" - helps, "segíthet" - can help. So the phrase "can I help you with something?" becomes "segíthettem valamivel?" - help-can-I any-what-with.

>BTW, I've only just realised what your sig's all about. In the US paper money is called "bilols" - in the UK they're called "notes", so the joke (sounds like a grouchoism) was lost on me.

I'm a marxist. I like Groucho :).