ABSTRACT
The point of departure is the infinitive form of the verb, an abbreviation of it, or a symbol representing it. The conjugation will be clear because student interpreter will know what the subject is that goes with the verb, so English speakers have no need to write works for he works where work is quicker. Verb tenses come up all the time, and the differences between them are often fundamental to understanding the speech. Like verb tenses, modal verbs are crucial to the message a speaker is trying to convey. They also crop up regularly and can be quite long words to write in full. Certainly in some languages, student interpreter don't want to be writing words like pourraient, should, powinien, mochten every two minutes, to take examples from French, English, Polish and German respectively. In some languages, modal verbs are already very short, and we won't need a symbol or abbreviation for them.
