You are on page 1of 1

MODAL VERBS

The Modal Verbs are a special kind of auxiliaries , which express the modality of the action and have
some specific features:

1.They are followed by various forms of the infinitive:

I must leave now! (short infinitive - for present)


People may be watching.(continuous infinitive – for present and future)
She must have heard of him.(perfect infinitive- to refer to the past)

2.They do not inflect(there are no –ed, -ing or –s forms)

3.Negatives are formed by adding not immediately after the modal

You must not worry.


4.Questions are formed by putting the modal in front of the subject: Could you give me an
example?

5.We use their equivalents to express time relationships :


must- have to
may- be allowed to
can- be able to

6.They are used in question tags:


They can’t all be right, can they?

The modals are used to express an attitude towards the information transmitted concerning
the intentions of the speaker and the effect on the hearer.
They may express:

POSSIBILITY:CAN, MAY, MIGHT, COULD


Strong possibility: + well :He may well be right.
Possibility in the past :would + perfect infinitive
Denial would have been useless.
PROBABILITY:WILL, WOULD, SHOULD, MUST, SHALL, OUGHT TO, COULD,

MIGHT, MAY.

IMPOSSIBILITY:CAN’T, COULDN’T

EXPRESSING A WISH:WOULD RATHER/SOONER

PROMISES, THREATS, REFUSALS:I will, you shall; will not, would not

DETERMINATION AND WILLINGNESS:WILL, WOULD, SHALL, SHOULD

CAPABILITY:CAN, COULD, BE ABLE TO

ORDER:SHALL, WILL, WOULD, MUST, MUSTN’T, WILL NOT, SHAN’T

REQUEST :will, can, could, can’t, may, might

PERMISSION:CAN, MAY, COULD

OBLIGATION AND NECESSITY:MUST, NEEDN’T,HAD TO,OUGHT TO,SHOULD,BE


TO

You might also like