Level: TwoTopic: Modal Verbs

Day 1: Overview

Modal verbs (±¡ºA°Êµü) are sometimes called ¡¥modal auxiliaries¡¦ (±¡ºA§U°Êµü). They belong to one category of auxiliary verbs. They are used with another (main) verb to express the manner. ±¡ºA°Êµü»P¥D°Êµü (main verbs) ³s¥Î¨Óªí¹F»y®ðªºª¬ºA

Modal verbs can be used to express possibility (¥i¯à©Ê), permission (³\¥i), suggestion («Øij), request (½Ð¨D), prohibition (¸T¤î), obligation (¸q°È), necessity (»Ýn©Ê), ability (¯à¤O), etc

Exercise

Decide which modal verbs are normally used to express different meanings.

Write down an example for each of your choices. The first one has been done for you.

Usage	Modal verbs	Example
Ability	Can Could	Kitty can speak English, Spanish and French. I could ride a bicycle when I was young.
Possibility	Can Could May Might Will Would	Examinations can be difficult. The test is so difficult and I could not possibly pass it. The train may be delayed. He might have left, but I just saw him in the banquet room. If you put on the coat, you will be warmer If I were you, I would go to the party.
Permission	Can Could May	Ann: Sorry, can I borrow your pen? Joy: Sure, you can take it. Rida: Could I borrow your pen, Mrs Jones? Mrs Jones: Yes, of course. May I watch TV, mother? Yes, you may if you have finished all your homework.
Planning	Will Would Shall	I will make dinner tonight. He said he would arrive before eleven o¡¦clock. We shall arrive at eleven o¡¦clock.
Request and Willingness	Will Would Shall	Kenny: Will you marry me? Julia: Of course I will marry you! The girl hoped her mother would buy the doll if she asked for it. Would you help me to give this to Ken? Max: Shall we dance? Carol: Yes, of course, we shall.
Suggestion	Could May	If the situation does not improve, you could try to complain to the Customer Service Department. If the programme cannot proceed, you may press the F2 button or you may call our hotline.
Obligation	Must Should Shall	You must study hard for your examination. You must not look at the screen too closely or you¡¦ll ruin your eyes. You should take a shower every day. He¡¦s the top student in the class, so he should get a high mark in the test. The employee shall complete any tasks assigned by the Senior Manager.
Prediction	Must Will Would Shall	It¡¦s a long flight; you must be tired after such a long journey. If you forget to turn off the oven, the cake will be burnt. They wondered what would happen to them. I shall have finished the homework before dinner.

*Details of different modal verbs with different meanings will be discussed over the following three days.

Modal verbs:

can, could, shall, should, may, might, will, would, must, (have to)

Not all grammar books agree about whether ¡§have to¡¨ is in the list of modal verbs or not. It is usually used to express obligation (¸q°È).

Special grammatical features of Modal Verbs

Have you made the following mistakes before?

I don¡¦t can finish the homework.

You must to go to school.

He could swim when he was young.

You may to leave the office earlier .

Don¡¦t worry about the mistakes. The following notes about grammatical features of modal verbs can help you!

Structures of modals verbs

Category	Modal verb and structure
Present	She may dream about you. Modal verb + bare infinitive
	They may dream about you. Modal verb + bare infinitive
Past	She might dream about you. Modal verb (past tense) + bare infinitive
Prefect	They may have dreamt about you before. Modal verb + have + past participle
Progressive	She may be dreaming about you. Modal verb + be + present participle
To-infinitive	- -
Gerund	- -
Auxiliary do	- -

Differences between modals and main verbs

Category	Error	Correction	Main verb pattern
Present	She mays dream about you.	She may dream about you.	She learns German.
			They learn German.
Past	She may dreamt about you. She mayed dream about you.	She might dream about you.	She learnt German in the university.
Prefect	She has mayed dreamt about you before.	She may have dreamt about you.	She has learnt German since last summer.
Progressive	She is maying dream about you.	She may be dreaming about you.	She is learning German now.
To-infinitive	She may to dream about you.	- -	She wants to learn read German.
Gerund	She may dreaming about you.	- -	She enjoyed learning German.
Auxiliary do	She does may think about you. She doesn¡¦t may think about you.	- -	She does learn German. She doesn¡¦t learn German.

Exercise:

Fill in the blanks for the summary of the differences between modal verbs and main verbs:

Some modal verbs can be used as the past of the other modal verbs.

Present	Past
can	Could
shall	Should
may	Might
will	Would
must	There is no past tense form of must. ¡¥Have to¡¦ is used to express obligation in the past: ¡¥had to¡¦.

Exercise

More about modal verbs: Ellipsis

Sometimes, words are missed out if the words are already specified in the previous clause. In the example given below, ¡¥speak English¡¦ is missed in the second clause because it is specified in the first clause.

1. I can speak English, and Peter can speak English too. (original)

à I can speak English, and so can Peter. (ellipsis)

The ¡¥leaving out¡¦ of words does not affect the meaning. This type of ¡¥shortened¡¦ sentence is called ellipsis. We use ellipsis to avoid repeating information that is already clear.

In the next example, the subject ¡¥Peter¡¦ and the modal verb ¡¥cannot¡¦ swap places with each other. Such inversion, which is similar to the use of main verbs, often happens in ellipsis.

2. I cannot speak German, and Peter cannot speak German either. (original)

à I cannot speak German, and neither can Peter. (ellipsis)Exercise

Rewrite the conversation below to avoid any unnecessary repetition of information. You may use ellipsis.