The Meanings of Modal Auxiliaries:

CAN can denote:

a) Ability: be able to, be capable of
Note: It can sometimes bring in the implication of willingness, especially in oral English: Can you help me with my car? (Are you
willing to help me with my car?)
b) Permission: be allowed to, be permitted to: Can I leave now?
Note: Can is less formal than may.

COULD:
a) Ability: She could spell quite well when she was a student.
b) Permission: Could I call back later?
c) Possibility: both theoretical and factual: The garden could be made.

MAY:
a) Permission: be allowed to, be permitted to: You may look up the words in the dictionary.
b) Possibility: factual – it is possible to/that: She may never achieve her goal.
Note: the sentence “The garden can be dug” is a sample of theoretical possibility while the sentence “The garden may be dug” is a
sample of factual possibility.
MAY expressing possibility is replaced by can in questions and normally in negative sentences as well: We may win the match. –
Can they win the match?
MAY is sometimes used as a quasi-subjunctive auxiliary or substitute to express wishes: May live the king!

MIGHT:
a) Permission: be allowed/permitted to: Might we smoke here?
The usual past tense form of may denoting permission is could.
b) Probability: theoretical – The report might be false.

SHALL (for volition use):

1) Willingness on the part of the speaker: weak volition, used with the 2nd and 3rd person subjects: e.g. He shall do what
he wishes.
2) Intention on the part of the speaker: intermediate volition, used only with the 1st person singular and plural subjects:
e.g. We shall contact you so that to let you know that…(It’s our own intention to do that)
3) Strong volition: e.g. You shall not lie.

Out of the 3 possible meanings, it is only that of intention that is used widely. On the whole, shall is an auxiliary with restricted use
(being replaced by should, will, would). It is only in the 1st person singular questions that shall cannot be replaced by will: Shall I
clean the blackboard?
In the 1st person plural questions both shall and will can be used with slight differences in meaning: e.g. What shall we have for
lunch? – I’m asking for some opinions from you
What will we have for lunch? – I don’t know what to cook, consequently I won’t.

SHOULD may express:

1) Obligation and logical necessity: You should pay more attention to what I say. / They should be home by now.
2) Putative should: after expressions such as It worries me that/a pity that/ unthinkable that he should make such a
gesture, or after verbs demanding the subjunctive: e.g. It sounds odd that he (should) make such a proposition.
3) Hypothetical use only for the 1st person and particularly in B.E. This instance of should will be found in the main
clause with a condition sub-clause. American English prefers would, which is getting the upper hand in the British young
society: e.g. I should/would come to your party if I weren’t ill.
4) Tentative condition in conditional sub-clauses: e.g. If your fever should/were to go up, please press the red button.

WILL can be used:

1) Willingness, namely weak volition with 2nd person subjects; “please” may be used to soften the tone of the request:
Will you shut the door, please?
2) Intermediate volition, usually contracted to ‘ll’ or the negative won’t: We won’t stay for more than a week.
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3) Insistence (strong volition) is always stressed, therefore never contracted: He will do it whatever you say.
There is a clear-cut distinction between: He will do it whatever you say (he really wants to do it) and
He shall do it whatever you say (he is imposed to do it)
4) Prediction – it’s often contracted:
a) specific prediction – He’ll be there by now.
b) timeless prediction – Dry wood will burn easily.
c) habitual prediction – Give a dog a bone and he’ll always wag his tail.

WOULD can denote:

1) Willingness (weak volition): Would you give me a hand?
2) Insistence (strong volition): You would make him your partner, you insist on that.
3) Characteristic activity: Every summer he would go to the swimming pool.
4) Hypothetical would, used in main clauses: He would give up smoking if he had a motivation.
5) Probability: The girl in jeans would be Jane. (she must be Jane)

MUST:
1) Obligation or compulsion in the present tense: You must be back by 2 o’clock.
Must can be used to past tense in reported speech: e.g. Mother told me I must/had to keep up with fashion. Mustn’t means
interdiction; lack of obligation will therefore be denoted by means of needn’t, don’t have to, etc.
2) Logical necessity: He must be joking.

Must is not used in negative and interrogative sentences, being replaced by can’t:
It must be true. – It can’t be true.

OUGHT TO denotes:
• Obligation and logical necessity: They ought to leave now.
Notes: a) ought to and should both denote obligation and logical necessity but they are less categorical than must and have to.
b) ought to is often felt to be awkward, therefore replaced by should ( in questions involving inversion)
c) used to expresses a state or a habit which no longer holds true: He used to be a good tennis player (but he is no
more)
Modal auxiliaries don’t accept combination with other auxiliaries; they aren’t therefore used with will/shall to denote
futurity: * You will must leave. – He may/might call on us tomorrow. – future reference

The modal auxiliaries in relation to tense, time and aspect

Present and Past Tense: Some of the modals have parallel uses in the present and past tense: may/could, must/had to, need
– no past, dare/dared (durst)
Notes:
a) The usual past tense of may denoting permission is could:
Today I may stay here/ Yesterday I could stay here.
b) Must, ought to and need are not used in the past except in indirect speech. Dare is sometimes met with in past
contexts, but we use “dared”: They *must/*ought to/*needn’t/?daren’t/dared not go to yesterday’s concert. Had to
serves as the past of both must and have to.
c) In addition to their regular past tense function, the past forms of the modal auxiliaries occur in present tense
contexts, their meanings being somewhat different to those of the present forms, in that they express greater
consideration, politeness or tentativeness than the corresponding present forms:
Can’t you learn any better? – capability
Couldn’t you learn any better? – more polite
May I smoke in here? – permission
Might I smoke in here? – more polite
Will you do me a favor? – volition
Would you do me a favor? – more polite.

Perfective and Progressive Aspects

: are normally excluded when the modals express ability or permission as shall and will express volition, but they are used
freely with other modal meanings:
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• Possibility – They may have left for school.
• Necessity – They must be joking.
• Prediction – They must have taken the children with them.

Negation of modal auxiliaries

requires much attention since the scope of negation may or may not include the meaning of the auxiliary itself. Therefore we
distinguish between auxiliary negation and main verb negation.

Auxiliary Negation – may or may not express permission: You may not go to the party.
CAN’T/CANNOT: It can’t be true (it’s impossible for it to be true), You can’t go there (you are not allowed to go there), I
can’t play tennis (lack of ability).
NEED NOT/NEEDN’T: You needn’t go to the party (you’re not obliged to go), You needn’t wear those glasses all the time
(it’s not necessary for you to wear those glasses all the time).
MAY NOT: possibility – You may not like it, but you have to do it.
WILL NOT/WON’T: Don’t worry, I won’t miss her / He won’t give up drinking (he insists on not giving it up).
They won’t have met her yet. (prediction)
SHALL NOT/SHAN’T: Don’t worry, you shan’t miss her (you are not allowed to miss her) / We shan’t learn the news in
due time. (prediction)
MUST NOT/MUSTN’T: obligation – You mustn’t keep us all waiting. (you are not allowed to...)
OUGHT NOT TO/OUGHTN”T TO: You oughtn’t to keep us all waiting. (it’s not nice of you to do that)
Notes:
• Some auxiliaries (can, need) follow the pattern of auxiliary negation, while others (shall, will, must) follow that of
maim verbs. May expressing permission belongs to the former group, while may expressing possibility belongs to
the latter group.
• Mustn’t is not normally used to denote necessity. Thus, the negation of “He must be joking” is “He can’t be joking”.
The auxiliary negation of must is needn’t – both non-obligation and non-necessity.
• There exists an odd equivalent with ‘may not’ for denoting non-permission and mustn’t denoting non-obligation.
This owes much to the diametric opposition of meaning between permission and obligation: He may not watch TV
(he’s not allowed to watch TV) / He must not watch TV (he’s obliged not to watch TV). A special emphatic pause
before not may alter the meaning of may not: e.g. You may […] not go to the party (you have the possibility of
choosing) / You may not […] go to the party (I don’t permit you to go).
• The past tense negative auxiliaries mightn’t, wouldn’t and shouldn’t follow by large the same negative pattern –
Wouldn’t you stop writing?

Main verb negation

The question form already anticipates the answer, a rather rhetoric one: Shall I fetch a piece of chalk? (do you want me
to?)
• The question use of shall is restricted to 1st person subjects. With WE it may have both exclusive and inclusive
meanings:
Shall I help you with your homework? – exclusive
I + others: Shall we have a game of chess? – inclusive
• May – possibility is never met with in questions, being substituted by can/could: e.g. Could he have fallen asleep?
– Yes, he may. / Need we take this exam? – Yes, you must.
• Must in questions has a positive orientation: Must we take this exam? – Yes, you must., as its actual meaning is “Is it
a fact that we must take the exam?”