Version of English you speak, across all varieties ofĮnglish you cannot to should. So there's no such thing as to may, or to could. They don't have a to form, this is what we call the infinitive. Something else that modalsĭo is actually something that they don't do. I can do it, you can do it, she can do it, they can do it, we can do it. Sentence is going to take the modal verb the same way. So you can take any one of these modals and you can use any subject in the world and it's not gonna change, right? You take a word like talk, for instance, and you would say I talk, Diane talks. Thing number one, theyĪgree with everything. May, might, must, can, could, shall, should, will, would. And whether or not we have the obligation or requirement or need to do something. Whether or not something is possible, or whether or not we have To determine if something is likely to happen, orĬertain to have happened. These verbs to express conditions on stuff. But what is modality? My fellow grammarian, Have special properties and help other verbs. Note that these verbs, like all modal verbs, are followed by an infinitive without to.ĭo this exercise to test your grammar again.- Hello grammarians! Today we're gonna talkĪbout a class of auxiliary, or helper verbs, called the modal verbs. It can't be easy for him, looking after three kids on his own. We use can't when we feel sure that something is not possible. They all have the same meaning, but may is more formal than might and could. We regret to inform you that some services may be delayed due to the bad weather. We use might, may or could to say that we think something is possible but we're not sure. You must be freezing out there! might, may, could He must live near here because he always walks to work.Ĭome inside and get warm. We use must when we feel sure that something is true or it's the only realistic possibility. This page focuses on making deductions about the present or future. The modal verb we choose shows how certain we are about the possibility. We can use modal verbs for deduction – guessing if something is true using the available information. Modals – deduction (present): Grammar test 1 You can't be bored already! You've only been here five minutes. They might be at work or they could be in the car. Look at these examples to see how must, might, may, could and can't can be used.

Exercise about modal verbs