could, may, might, shall, should, must! have only one form (fe they do not change Te cine hand are folowed bya simple of coninuous bare nite (eg could + do, be don ms done, have been ares thay can also be followed by a bare infinitive in the passive (eg caulé + be done, have Deen done) sernmodats nave snr meanings to modals. Tey include: need (to), ought o, had better and have go 1. «ome seminodals, suchas had better, do nat change tense or person. Others, such as Nave (®t, do. 1sed in combination with modals, producing phrases such as might have fo The nine main models (wil, would, Can, ‘= Some semimodels can be us al abity | Curent or general aity | can, cont Tov cont rei apoak seven ingiogs fue cana? | 0 could, couldnt’ | There's no way you could read when you were wo! Past ability Decisons mate row abot ca, cnt cou Jean get you a paper wien | goto the shop, if you ike. | |e ay couldn't Future abitty | overt be eo | One dy, mat ail adults will be able to read and writ. | Hypothetical] Current or general | could, couldn't Teouldn't go on a quiz show. Id be too scared! abiity | hypothetical abilty | | au cuit | could go wt nem tote cia omarow bt wont |Rave pode sity eesti aveady seen the fn, sstiypotaics aby | caulshove, | Tey could Rave asd th Prine Mitr mich more codes | goachng estar. wonder Wy ey The fl negate form of moda is writen as two words, eg could not The excepin is camo, which sone word. | can and could cannot be used as infntives. We can use to be able to instead. rid love to be able to come with you to the cinema tomorrow but {just can | “ve drt usualy use coud for past bilty on one occasion, We use was/Were abl o, managed or succeeded, el | 7 Luckiy, she was ablo to fnsh Ue article in time. | Fowever with verbs such as see, Rear, fea, etc we can use could fr pastabilty on one ovcasion. | 7 I could see that she was tired. : - may, could, couldn't, can, can't ‘Can [finish watching this before | go to bed? Asking for permission may, may not, could, couldn, can, can't _| No, you can't Giving/refusing permission trays move pote and formal than cout and ous more pote and formal than an raves use modal t tak about past permission, We can use wasere alowed, | We were allowed to buy ane comic eac However, we do use could to talk about past permission in reported speech, (se \/ Mum said we could buy one comic each | 22 Unit 25 for mote information) Pc aa a ee [eon yo it oe ise 9S We can only use hach't better in questions. / Hadn't you better check that these facts are actually true? = «We can also use might/may as well to give advice and make sugges! is not perfect, there is no better option. / We may as well watch this as there's nothing else on. | tions. This suggests that, although the suggestion |cm. itcising past behav Expressing annoyance at past | behaviour | criticising general behaviour | cating a specie exam of | someone's general behaviour I might as well be cm | ‘or general obligation | Alack of current or general | obligation | Future obigstion | | piace ot wre seston | rast obigation ‘lack of past obligation ‘We are more ikely to Using must for que We can also use might as si ‘could have, might have well to suggest criticism dead for all you care. “T must, must, | need to) don'thave fo, have go, ted, cont need (0) | ithave to, must, must | have (got to, iwi) need (to) | drt/wontt have to, hver | needn't, don'/won't need (to, have (got Toda sous ae Sl ae ecg hove ‘Moda ad somi-modals | ke that | You could/might have told me yo | going to be late! | He will slam the door everytime he goes out. | You would take the car jst when | wanted fo | go out. 1 were | You nave ‘wo be a good communicator 0 be a press spokesperson. You don’t always need to have a degree to | become a journalist. | You'll have to do quite | you writ this report alot of research before “t gat tof glad we won't have to write any more essays on tis course You shout have spoken to Ws Todd | | hadi, needed) see pre come up wth tree question act | | att ners edt, ne oat puna tna dew | | edt ave |uneina 2 med ro | for external obligation tions is extremely formal. ge must for persona obligation (rnking our own der about ‘Comeone else making a decision about what we must do). We usually use have 1. ‘wnat we must do} and have to ‘7 Do you have to have a degree to be a Hustntis used for proiition. Dont have tis use We can use did't have to and ct need 0 for ines We cave for things that we actualy dd but werent obit journalist? | wil, would, must, could, couldn't Certainty (or near certainty) about ‘row, the future or generally wil ave, wor! wouldnt fave, mus have, couldn't have should, shouldn't, ought to, ughtn't to, may/might ‘could well, might easily should have, s ‘ought to have, ough Certainty (or near certainty) | about the past | Probability about now, the future or generally couldn't have, | Probaity about he past htt to hav have, would have, have, cantt well not), oot wel no) nave, mit | | easly (not) have possbity sout now, ine ureor | cod may ot rat mT generaly | Iay/migh/ould ust | erat abot ere pst | clave, may one might have, mightnt have Lt 3 i ‘should and should have can be used in that clauses 7 is strange that you should say that mms scene eid ater words exoressing im ‘7 Was it necessary that Alan shout 4 for a lack of obligation. that we did or didnt actually iged to do. fo. However, we only use needn't eras someone atthe Or Thatll be the postnan.” | ‘iean'tbe. He's aeady been’ | "They won't have heard the news, wil they? | ‘They must have heard by now, surely. ] ‘The weather sho shouldn't it?” sre, the forecast saa it may well rain” ‘Jan should have finished writing her article by now, shouide't she” "ho may well have done, but aver ityet” {might (lust) have before it closes. | 4m might not have checked fi utd be good tomorrow, nt seen time to get ta the ibrary email yet. portance and reactions id have been invited to the meeting? n