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Examples: He Can Speak Chinese. She Should Be Here by 9:00

Modal verbs are special verbs that behave differently than regular verbs. They do not take "-s" in the third person and use "not" to form negatives. Common modal verbs include can, may, shall, will, would, must. Modal verbs cannot be used in all tenses and have general meanings of ability, permission, possibility, advice, promises, habits, deduction and obligation. Modal verbs can be used in simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms.

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14 views

Examples: He Can Speak Chinese. She Should Be Here by 9:00

Modal verbs are special verbs that behave differently than regular verbs. They do not take "-s" in the third person and use "not" to form negatives. Common modal verbs include can, may, shall, will, would, must. Modal verbs cannot be used in all tenses and have general meanings of ability, permission, possibility, advice, promises, habits, deduction and obligation. Modal verbs can be used in simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms.

Uploaded by

FátimaLópez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Modal Verbs

Modal verbs are special verbs which behave very differently from normal verbs. Here are some important
differences:
1. Modal verbs do not take "-s" in the third person.
Examples:
He can speak Chinese.
She should be here by 9:00.

2. You use "not" to make modal verbs negative, even in Simple Present and Simple Past.
Examples:
He should not be late.
They might not come to the party.

3. Many modal verbs cannot be used in the past tenses or the future tenses.
Examples:
He will can go with us.
She musted study very hard.

Common Modal Verbs and their general meaning

Present/Future
Can

Past
Could

Meaning
Ability, permission (saber e
poder) and possibility
I can play the piano

May

Might

Can I go out tonight?


Permission and possibility
(poder)
May I ask you a question?

Shall

Should (ought to)

Take an umbrella. It may rain


Shall: to offer help and to
make suggestions
Queres que ...?
Qu tal se...?

Shall I help you ?


Shall we go out tonight?
Will

Should: advice
Promises, habits

Would

I will do my best, I promise


He would always do the same
Must

We use HAD TO in the past,


but be carefull HAVE TO is not
a modal verb

Deduction and obligation


(deber)
You must be Johns son, your
smile and your face is like his.
I must get up at 7.30 on
Mondays.

Modal Forms
Modal verbs can be used in a variety of different forms. Study the examples below.
Modal Simple
I could swim at the beach.

Passive Modal Simple


The room should be cleaned once a day.

Modal Continuous
I could be swimming at the beach right now.

Passive Modal Continuous


The room should be being cleaned now.

Modal Perfect
I could have swum at the beach yesterday.

Passive Modal Perfect


The room should have been cleaned
yesterday.

Modal Perfect Continuous


I could have been swimming at the beach instead of working
in the office.

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