Modals

What are modal verbs?

Modals (also called modal verbs, modal auxiliary

verbs, modal auxiliaries) are special verbs which behave
irregularly in English. They are different from normal verbs like
"work, play, visit..." They give additional information about
the function of the main verb that follows it. They have a great
variety of communicative functions.

The modal verbs

are can, could, may, might, shall, should, will and would.

The modals are used to do things like talking about ability, asking
permission making requests, and so on.

Modal Expressing Example

Verb
must Strong obligation You must stop when the
traffic lights turn red.
logical conclusion / He must be very tired. He's
Certainty been working all day long.
must not prohibition You must not smoke in the
hospital.
can ability I can swim.
permission Can I use your phone
please?
possibility Smoking can cause cancer.
could ability in the past When I was younger I could
run fast.
polite permission Excuse me, could I just say
something?
possibility It could rain tomorrow!
may permission May I use your phone
please?
possibility, It may rain tomorrow!
 probability
might polite permission Might I suggest an idea?
possibility, I might go on holiday to
probability Australia next year.
need not lack of I need not buy tomatoes.
necessity/absence of There are plenty of
obligation tomatoes in the fridge.
should/ou 50 % obligation I should / ought to see a
ght to doctor. I have a terrible
headache.
advice You should / ought to revise
your lessons

Ability:

We use can to talk about someones skill or general abilities:

She can speak several languages.

He can swim like a fish.
They cant dance very well.

We use can to talk about the ability to do something at a given

time in the present or future:

You can make a lot of money if you are lucky.

Help. I cant breathe.
They can run but they cant hide.

We use could to talk about past time:

She could speak several languages.

They couldnt dance very well.

We use could have to say that someone had the

ability/opportunity to do something, but did not do it:
 She could have learned Swahili, but she didnt have time.
I could have danced all night [but didn't].

Permission:

We use can to ask for permission to do something:

Can I ask a question, please?

Can we go home now?

could is more formal and polite than can:

Could I ask a question please?

Could we go home now?

may is another more formal and polite way of asking for

permission:

May I ask a question please?

May we go home now?

We use can to give permission:

You can go home now if you like.

You can borrow my pen if you like.

may is a more formal and polite way of giving permission:

You may go home now, if you like.

We use can to say that someone has permission to do

something:

We can go out whenever we want.

Students can travel free.
may is a more formal and polite way of saying that someone
has permission:

Students may travel free.

Instructions and requests:

We use could you and would you as polite ways of telling or

asking someone to do something:

Could you take a message please?

Would you carry this for me please?
Could I have my bill please?

can and will are less polite:

Can you take a message please?

Will you carry this for me please?

Suggestions and advice:

We use should to make suggestions and give advice:

You should send an email.

We should go by train.

We use could to make suggestions:

We could meet at the weekend.

You could eat out tonight.

We use conditionals to give advice:

Dan will help you if you ask him.

Past tenses are more polite:

 Dan would help you if you asked him.

Offers and invitations:

We use can I and to make offers:

Can I help you?

Can I do that for you?

We can also use shall I

Shall I help you with that?

Shall I call you on your mobile?

We sometime say I can ... or I could ... or Ill (I will) ... to make
an offer:

I can do that for you if you like.

I can give you a lift to the station.
Ill do that for you if you like.
Ill give you a lift to the station.

We use would you like (to) ... for invitations:

Would you like to come round tomorrow?

Would you like another drink?

We use you must or we must for a very polite invitation:

You must come round and see us.

We must meet again soon.

Obligation and necessity

We use must to say that it is necessary to do something:

 You must stop at a red light.
Everyone must bring something to eat.
You can wear what you like, but you must look neat and tidy.
Im sorry, but you mustnt make a noise in here.

We use had to for this if we are talking about the past:

Everyone had to bring something to eat.

We could wear what we liked, but we had to look neat and tidy.

We use can and cant :

To talk about ability:

Maria can speak four languages.
I cant swim, but my sister can.

To say that something is possible or impossible:

Learning English can be difficult [= Learning English is
sometimes difficult.]
Children can be very naughty [= Children are sometimes
very naughty.]
Its still light. It cant be bedtime.

For requests and refusals of requests

Can I go home now?
You can go whenever you like.
You can borrow the car today, but you cant have it
tomorrow.

To offer to help someone:

Can I help you?
Can I carry that bag for you?
We use could and couldnt as the past tense of can/cant:

To talk about ability:

 I could run very fast when I was younger.
She couldnt get a job anywhere.

To say that something was possible or impossible:

Our teacher could be very strict when we were at school. [=
Some teachers were very strict.]
People could starve in those days. [= People sometimes
starved.]
You couldnt use computers in the nineteenth century.

To make a polite request:

Could I go now please?
Could you lend me a dictionary please?

To make a polite offer:

Could I give you a lift?
I could carry that for you.
We use could have:

to show that something is possible now or was possible at

some time in the past:
Its ten oclock. They could have arrived now.
They could have arrived hours ago.
We use may:

when we are not sure about something:

Jack may be coming to see us tomorrow.
Oh dear! Its half past ten. We may be late for the meeting.
There may not be very many people there.

to make polite requests:

May I borrow the car tomorrow?
May we come a bit later?
When we use may not for a refusal it is emphatic:
 You may not!
You may not borrow the car until you can be more careful
with it.
We use might:
when we are not sure about something:
I might see you tomorrow.
It looks nice, but it might be very expensive.
Its quite bright. It might not rain today.
As the past tense of may for requests:
He asked if he might borrow the car.
They wanted to know if they might come later.
For very polite requests:
Might I ask you a question?
Might we just interrupt for a moment?
We use may have and might have to show that something has
possibly happened now or happened at some time in the past:
Its ten oclock. They might have arrived now
They may have arrived hours ago.

Infinitive
We use the to-infinitive:
to express purpose (to answer "Why...?"):
He bought some flowers to give to his wife.
He locked the door to keep everyone out.
We sometimes say in order to or in order not to:
We set off early in order to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly in order not to wake the children
or we can say so as to or so as not to:
 We set off early so as to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly so as not to wake the children.
after certain verbs particularly verbs
of thinking and feeling:
choose, decide, expect, forget, hate, hope, intend,
learn, like,
love, mean, plan, prefer, remember, want, would like,
would love
and verbs of saying:
agree, promise, refuse
They decided to start a business together.
Remember to turn the lights out.

Some verbs are followed by a direct object and the infinitive

advise, ask, encourage, invite, order, persuade,
remind, tell, warn,expect, intend, would prefer, want,
would like
She reminded me to turn the lights out.
He encouraged his friends to vote for him.
after certain adjectives.
Sometimes the to-infinitive gives a reason for the adjective:

disappointed

glad

sad

happy

anxious
 pleased

surprised

proud

unhappy
We were happy to come to the end of our journey
= We were happy because we had come to the end of our
journey
John was surprised to see me
= He was surprised because he saw me

Other adjectives with the to-infinitive are:

able

unable

due

eager

keen

likely

unlikely

ready

prepared

unwilling

willing
 Unfortunately I was unable to work for over a week.
I am really tired. Im ready to go to bed.
We often use the to-infinitive with these adjectives after it to give
opinions:

difficult

easy

possible

impossible

hard

right

wrong

kind

nice

clever

silly

foolish
Its easy to play the piano, but its very difficult to
play well.
He spoke so quickly it was impossible to understand him.
We use the preposition for to show who these adjectives
refer to:

difficult

easy
 possible

impossible

hard
It was difficult for us to hear what she was saying.
It is easy for you to criticise other people.
We use the preposition of with other adjectives:
Its kind of you to help.
It would be silly of him to spend all his money.
As a postmodifier after abstract nouns like:

ability

desire

need

wish

attempt

failure

opportunity

chance

intention
I have no desire to be rich.
They gave him an opportunity to escape.
She was annoyed by her failure to answer the question
correctly.
When I am travelling I always take something to read.
I was all alone. I had no one to talk to.
There is hardly anything to do in most of these small towns.
 Gerund
We can use the -ing form of the verb:
as a noun:
I love swimming.
Swimming is very good for your health.
You can get fit by swimming regularly.

-ing nouns are nearly always uncount nouns

as an adjective:
The main problem today is rising prices.
That programme was really boring.
He saw a woman lying on the floor.
Because the -ing noun or adjective is formed from a verb it can
have any of the patterns which follow a verb, for example:

... an object:
I like playing tennis.
Can you imagine living on the moon?

... or an adverbial:
You can earn a lot of money by working hard.
There were several people waiting for the bus.

... or a clause:
I heard someone saying that.
The -ing noun can be used:

as the subject of a verb:

 Learning English is not easy.

as the object of a verb:

We enjoy learning English.
Common verbs followed by an -ing object are:

admit like hate start avoid

suggest enjoy dislike begin finish

as the object of a preposition

Some people are not interested in learning English.
The -ing adjective can come:

in front of a noun:
I read an interesting article in the newspaper today.
We saw a really exciting match on Sunday.
The commonest ing adjectives used in front of the noun are

amusing interesting worrying shocking disappointing

boring surprising exciting terrifying frightening

 tiring annoying

after a noun:
Who is that man standing over there?
The boy talking to Angela is her younger brother.

and especially after verbs like see, watch, hear, smell etc.
I heard someone playing the piano.
I can smell something burning.