- I must phone my dad. It’s his birthday today.
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English
Quarter 1 - Preliminaries
Modals
→ A modal is a type of auxiliary (helping) verb that is
used to express: ability, possibility, permission or
obligation and many others.
● Permission
= The modal verbs that we often we use to give and
ask for permission are can, couldand may.
- Can I borrow your pen? & yes, you can - We
often use can to ask for and give permission.
- Could I borrow your pen? - We also use
could to ask for permission (but not to give it).
Could is more formal and polite than can.
- We couldn’t study in the library after 6pm &
We could do to any shop in the mall we
wanted to Both staff and students could use
the ice rink. - We can also use 'could' to say
that someone was allowed to do something
in the past. We use 'could not' or, 'couldn't,' to
say that they were NOT allowed to do it.
- May I borrow your pen & i’m sorry, but you
may not enter the premises - May is the most
formal way to ask for and give permission.
We mostly use ‘may’ for more formal
situations and ‘may not’ is used to say that
someone is not allowed to do something.
● Obligation
= When we talk about obligation in English, we can
use "must", "have to", "need to and "can't. We use
have to and must to express obligation. There is a
slight difference between the
way we use snem.
- We have to wear a uniform when were
working in reception & Al has to work
tomorrow so he can" come - We sometimes
call this 'external obligation. Have to shows
us that the obligation comes from outside the
speaker. Perhaps the rule is a general law or
obligation
We use must the authority for the oblisation
comes from the person who is socakins.
Must expresses a strong obligation or
necessity
Note, we don't use must to express obligation in the
past. We use have to instead.
For example; I had to pay P1,000 to renew my
passport last week.
- He should see a doctor. - Should is a weak
obligation, and we use it to give advice,
telling people what you think is a good idea.
● Prohibition
= These modal verbs for prohibition are used when
we want to say that something is not allowed or
permitted.
- You can’t take photos in the museum.
They're really strict about it. - We use can’t to
talk about something that is against the rules,
particularly when we didn't make the rules.
-
-  ou may not smoke in this house. - May not
Y
is the formal way to prohibit something.
-
- You must not use a cell phone - must not is
used when talking about things that are not
allowed. They are pronibited and forbidden
due to either real laws, regulations or
personal obligations.
Conditionals
→ Conditionals are extremely important in the
English language because they help us express
things that may happen in the present and future.
Conditionals serve many purposes and take several
different forms. They can be used to give advice,
express regret and discuss facts, among other
things.
→ Conditionals are also known as if clauses, we use
them to say that one thing depends on something
else. They can be used to talk about something that
always happens, might happen or might have
happened as a result of another state, action or
event.

1.) Zero Conditional - The zero conditional is
used to talk about things that are certain, or
always true. It is a real condition that has an
inevitable result. Think about how scientific
facts are written or general truths
- The message here is that if something
happens there will always be a guaranteed
consequence. If you stand out in the rain,
you'll get wet. If you eat too much, you'll put
on weight.
- We can also use the word when instead of if
and the meaning stays the same.
2.) First Conditional - We use this to talk about
things in the future that are likely to happen
or have a real possibility of happening.
3.) Second Conditional - The structure or the
second conditional is: If + past simple,...
would/wouldn’t + infinitive.
-
- As you can see, in the if clause we use the
past simple, and in the main clause we use
the conditional would. We can also use the
word could to mean a hypothetical possibility.
-
- The second conditional refers to the present
or the future, and is used to talk about
anything unlikely to happen. imagine meeting
Lionel Messi, or finding a milion dollars on
the floor. These things might not have
happoned to you, but you sure can dream!
- Were' instead of 'was’ - When there is the
verb to be in the if clause, we can change it
trom was to were. This is because we are
talking about hypothetical situations, so we're
changing the mood of the verb from
indicative to subjunctive. Both options are
correct, but were is often preferred.
4.) Third Conditional - We use this structure to
talk about an imagined past. That's right
ladies and gentlemen, here's where you can
change the past. Well, at least speculate how
things could have been differentt. We often
use the third conditional to talk about regrets,
and it is based on an unreal situation that
cannot be changed.