MODAL VERB USE EXAMPLE

Can ability I can speak English

permission/ request Can I open the window?

possibility I can lend you the new U2 album

Can’t ability I can’t speak Chinese

uncertainty You can’t be serious

Could ability in the past You could ride a bike when you were 6

polite request Could you lend me your pen, please?

possibility That story could be true

Be able to ability She has been able to learn 9 languages

May possibility That story may be true

polite request May I open the window?

Might remote possibility That story might be true

Must internal obligation I must study hard

certainty That story must be true

Mustn’t prohibition You mustn’t cross the road when the light is red

Have to external obligation (present and past) You have to be here by 8:30
Yesterday I had to be at work at 8:00

Don’t/ doesn’t/ didn’t have to lack of obligation (present and past) You don’t have to worry about him
We didn’t have to buy bread, there was a lot at
 home

Needn’t lack of obligation (present and past) You needn’t worry about him
We needn’t have bought bread, there was a lot at
home

Should/ shouldn’t advice (present and past) You should go to the doctor if you don’t feel well
You shouldn’t have eaten so much

Ought to formal advice (usually only affirmative) You ought to go to the doctor

Shall offers/ invitations (only 1st person and Shall we go to the cinema?
questions)

Would offers/ invitations Would you like to go to the cinema?

repeated actions in the past I would spend my holidays on the coast when I
was a child

conditionals I would go by car

I would have gone by car

Click on the following links to practise modal verbs

http://www.englishpage.com/modals/interactivemodal1.htm
http://www.agendaweb.org/verbs/modals-exercises.html
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/multi/modal1.htm
http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/modal-verbs-exercises.html
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2229
http://usefulenglish.ru/grammar/modal-verbs-exercise-eight
http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-modals.php#.VIX7nDGG-So