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Modal Verbs
Sometimes the verbs in a sentence need help from other words to make their meaning clearer.
These words are a special type of verb, called 'modal auxiliary verbs' or 'modals'.

Modals help us talk about ability, permission, possibility, prohibition and necessity. We also use
modals when we want to give advice or make suggestions.

Meaning
Possibility/Certainty: may, might, will

• We may go to the science museum later today.

• It might be fun to have a robot in the house!
• There's no doubt that one day a computer will pass the Turing test.

Permission: may, can

• Only graduate students may register for this robotics course.

• Can we buy a vacuum cleaning robot?

Ability: can, be able to, could

• AI technology is able to perform many tasks that humans can't do.

• Artificial intelligence could make our lives easier.

Necessity/Obligation: must, have to, need to, should

• Scientists must take precautions when building intelligent devices.

• You don't have to get a robot to do your chores, do you?

Advice/Suggestions: should, ought to (functions like a modal but is followed by to)

• Should we buy a vacuum cleaning robot?

• You ought to educate yourself about new technologies.

Prohibition: must not

• You mustn't enter the computer lab after hours.

Formation
• Modals are followed by the base form (infinitive without to) of the verb.
• Modals have no –s in the third person singular
o This computer can think for itself.
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• Modal questions and negative sentences don't require an auxiliary verb (do)
o Can this computer think for itself?
o This computer can't think for itself.

• Most modals (apart from can and will) do not have past forms, however certain past ideas can
be expressed by a modal verb followed by a perfect infinitive (have + past participle).

• The researcher might have discovered a new form of intelligence.

• He must have made a mistake when he programmed the computer.

• Some verbs such as: need to, have to, be able to behave like modals in the sense that they
combine with other verbs to help express certain ideas. These verbs behave like regular verbs
and have negative, question and past forms.

• Robots are able to be more productive.

• The machine doesn't need to become more efficient.
• Did she have to try a Turing test?
 Modals to Degrees of Necessity I 75

11 Grammar Presentation
MODALS TO EXPRESS DEGREES OF NECESSITY
(RANGING FROM OBLIGATION TO NO OBLIGATION)
Necessity
Obligation (Necessity)
100%
must must not
You have to call them. You can't call them.
have got to are not allowed to
couldn't
You had to call them. You call them.
weren't allowed to

Advice
had better
had better not
You should leave early. You leave early.
shouldn't
oughtto
should have
You left early. You shouldn't have left early.
ought to have

Expectation
are supposed to are not supposed to
You take a gift. You do this.
are to are natto

were supposed to were not supposed to

You take a gift. You do this.
were to were natto

Suggestion No Obligation (No Necessity)

could
You give roses. You don't have to call them.
might
could have
You given roses. You didn't have to call them.
might have
 Grammar in Context

BEFORE YOU READ

D When people say,"Columbus discovered the New World,"what do they mean?
11 What theories have you heard af as to wha besides Columbus mighthave "discavered" the New World?
() Read this article about the discovery ofAmerica.

Who Really'- Discovered America?

well-known school rhyme goes like this: "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,

A Columbus sailed the ocean blue." However, Columbus may not have been the first
to visit the Western Hemisphere. So many other groups have been nominated for
the honor that the question might almost be rephrased as follows: "Who didn't discover
America?" But what does the evidence show? Who really discovered the New World? Those
suggested include the Vikings, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the
Portuguese, and some Irish monks.
The VLkings are perhaps the best-known candidates.
Some assume there were several Viking trips to the New
World, but the most famous is the voyage of Leif Erickson.
Evidence suggests that Erickson and some companions
visited the New World in about the year 1000, almost 500
years before Columbus. Viking records and artifacts found
in the New World indicate that they arrived at a place they
named "Vinland the Good"-the land of grapes. Scholars
originally assumed that Vmland must have been present-
day Newfoundland. Today, though, the assumption is that
Vmland couldn't have been Newfoundland, since that
island is too far north for grapes to grow. Could the climate
have been warmer in Erickson's day? Perhaps. However,
the current theory is that Vmland may have been what is now
Rhode Island, Cape Cod, the Boston area, or Nova Scoria.
The Japanese are more recent candidates. In 1956 on the
Pacific coast of Ecuador, an amateur archaeologist discovered
pottery fragments dating back about 5,000 years. Where did Christopher Columbus
(continued)
J
90 I toor6

Who Reallr-
a
Discovered America'
they come from? Intrigued by the mystery, Betty Meggers of the Smithsonian Institute concluded
that individuals may have sailed from Japan across the Pacific to Ecuador about 5,000 years
ago. Meggers based her conclusion on the similarity of the pottety found in Ecuador to Japa-
nese pottety of the same era. Besides this, said Meggers, it has been established that there was
no pottety in Ecuador in 3000 \l.e., so the Japanese may have introduced it. If this theory is
true, how could the voyage have happened? Some think Japanese fishermen might have been
swept out to sea and carried across the Pacific for 10,000 miles. The theory may sound unlikely
and may be disproved eventually, but the pottety evidence must mean something.
One interesting theory is the story of St. Brendan, an Irish monk born in A.D. 484, who
made many voyages in northwestern Europe to establish monasteries. Maps of the time of
Columbus showed an island far out in the Atlantic called "St. Brendan's Isle." Brendan's jour-
ney is mentioned in a document called "Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbot.· The journey sup-
posedly took place in the sixth century, and reports of it may have influenced Columbus to be-
lieve that there really was a New World. The text says that when Brendan and his fellow
monks took this tremendous journey, they saw "sea monsters" and "crystals that rose up into
the sky" and described "a rain of bad-smeUing rocks." In 1976, British navigation scholar Tun
Severin decided to test the theory to see if Brendan and his companions could really have ac-
complished this voyage. Using the specifications described in the St. Brendan text, they built a
curragh, an Irish boat made out of leather, and attempted the journey. On the way, they passed
Greenland and wintered in Ic:eland, where they saw whales, a volcano, and icebergs. They the-
orized that Brendan's sea monsters could have been large, friendly whales, that the crystals ris-
ing to the sky might have been icebergs, and that volcanoes in Iceland might have produced the
rain of bad-smelling rocks. Severin's group did eventually get to Newfoundland, proving that a
curragh could have made the journey to North America. Religious artifacts and stone carvings
showing vocabulary and grammatical construc-
tiODS from Old Irish have been found in Vtrginia
in the United States. This suggests that other
missionaries could have gone to the New World
afrer Brendan's return. So the story may be true.
However, we come back to the original ques-
tion: Who really "discovered" America? Contin-
ued future research should get us closer to an
answer. Whatever the results of such future in-
vestigations, Columbus did !H!I, of course, really
discover America. The Native Americans who
migrated across the Bering Strait 10,000 or more
years ago were, of course, the real discoverers,
and they deserve most of the credit. The state-
ment that Columbus "discovered" the New
World really means that he started two-way
communication between the Old World and the
New. In that sense, therefore, Columbus's repu- Could this boat have made it across
tation is still safe. the Atlantic?
 ModaU Iv Exfn- Der-s of CertaiIIty I 91

AFTER YOU READ

What does each sentence mean? Circle the correct answer.

1. Leif Erickson and some companions must have visited the New World around the year 1000.
a. It's almost certain that they visited it then.
b. It's absolutely certain that they visited it then.
c. It's possible that they visited it then.
2. The story of St. Brendan may have influenced Columbus to believe there was a New World.
a. It's almost certain that it influenced him.
b. It's possible that it influenced him.
c. It's absolutely certain that it influenced him.
3. Furure research should get us closer to an answer.
a. It's possible that it will get us closer.
b. It's absolutely certain that it will get us closer.
c. It's almost certain that it will get us closeL

11 Grammar Presentation
MODALS TO EXPRESS DEGREES OF CERTAINTY

Speculations about the Present

must can't / couldn't
It be true. It be true.
h.s(gotlto must not
may/might IUY not
It be true. It be true.
could might not