Modal Verbs

Wednesday 14^th January,

Hi Isabel,

So, we started the course as we finished it, with modal verbs!

It’s very important to understand the uses of modal verbs. Separate them into two groups according to what they express: obligation /prohibition or speculation/possibility.

Modal Verbs can express:

ability	He can’t ski.
advice	You should stop smoking.
obligation	You must stop at the crossroads.
	You must see the film.
permission	Can I go to the party?
probability	He must be rich.
	It might rain.
	It’ll be a good party.
willingness	I’ll help you.
unwillingness	I won’t help you.

We also have some related verbs:

ability	manage to / be able to
advice	had better / Why don’t you
obligation	have (got)to be required to
permission	be allowed to
probability	be bound to be supposed to be likely to
willingness	promise to
unwillingness	refuse to

We studied modal verbs for obligation, prohibition, permission and advice.

Obligation	Must (I must, when you impose the obligation yourself)	Have to (usually for rules  or laws)
Prohibition	Mustn’t /Can’t / isn’t- aren’t allowed to
No necessity	Don’t / doesn’t have to
Advice / recommendation	should / shouldn’t ought to / ought not to

We’ve gone through the different uses of Modal verbs. Here’s the summary:

+	-	Modals of probability ( present and future)
Will	won’t	They express what we strongly believe to be true about the present. Based on our knowledge of people and things: routine, character etc.	Is that the phone? It’ll be John. He said he’d ring around now.
Must	can’t	Must is used to express what we infer or conclude to be the most logical or rational interpretation of events. (less certain that “will”) / “can’t” is the negative of must.	- Look over there! That must be Jon’s new car. - She can’t have a ten-year-old daughter! She’s only 25!
Should	shouldn’t	It expresses what may reasonably be expected to happen; also that we want that whatever is predicted to happen.	- Our guests should be here soon. (If they haven’t got lost) - This homework shouldn’t take you long.
May	may not	It expresses the possibility that sth will happen or is already happening.	- We may go to Greece for our holidays. We haven’t decided yet. - We may not have enough money to go abroad this year.
Might	might not	It expresses possibility bur in a more tentative way.	- It might rain, but I doubt it. - I might not be back in time for supper, so don’t wait for me.
Could	might not	is used in a similar way to “might”	- It could rain, but I doubt it. - It looks like it could rain, but it might not.
*The negative “couldn’t” has a similar meaning to “can’t,” only slightly weaker. She couldn’t have a ten-year-old daughter! She’s only 25!
Can		We use it to express what it is generally and all-time true. It cannot be used to predict future possibility.(Will be possible or will be able to)	Cycling in town can be dangerous.
Modal  auxiliaries in the past
All the modal verbs given above are also used with have + past participle to express different degrees of certainty about the past.

·         You met a man with a moustache? That would have been my uncle tom.

·         It won’t have been Peter you met at the party. He wasn’t invited.

·         It must have been Simon. He looks like Peter.

·         It can’t have been a very interesting party. No one seems to have enjoyed it.

·         Where’s Henry? He should have been here ages ago!

·         He might have decided not to come. He could have had an accident.

·         He can hardly have forgotten to come.

·         “Can have” is only used in questions or with “hardly, only or never”.

·         Where can he have got to go?

·         They can only have known each other for a few weeks.

I hope it helps! See you on Wednesday!