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Grammar
Grammar
Modal Verbs
Will, may, and might are modal auxiliary verbs. English has other modal verbs:
• He cans can play the guitar well. • She mights might make dinner for us.
There is no “do,” “did,” or “does” in questions. Instead, the modal verb is used before the subject:
What time will class start? Can Jane speak French? Could I sit here?
Ability
can is used to say that you know how to do something or that something is possible:
Requests
We say Can you... or Could you... to ask people to do something for us. In this usage, could does
not have a past meaning. This is similar to Will you... as we studied in Grammar 7-2. We can also
make polite requests using Would you...:
Can you... and Will you... are casual polite requests. Could you... and Would you... are the most
polite:
To ask for permission or request to do something, English speakers use Can I..., Could I..., and May
I.... Can is casual, could is polite, and may is very polite: