O U R LA S T P R E S E N T A T I O N OF THE 2023

MODAL VERBS
(PRESENT & PAST FORMS)
MODAL VERBS ARE FOLLOWED BY
bare infinitive
 MUST
when you are certain
something is true

MAY/MIGHT/COULD
MODAL VERBS when you are not certain about sth
OF
SPECULATION

CAN’T
when you are certain
something isn’t true
MUST
The doctor must be late, there are a lot of patients in the waiting room

MAY/MIGHT/COULD
I can’t find my keys, they may* be on my desk.

Remember that may is more probable than might and could is to talk about
possibilities rather than probabilities.
So: if you use could, you are just mentioning one of the multiple posible places were
the key could be.
if you use may, you are a bit more certain about that than when you use might.

CAN’T
You’ve just had lunch, you can’t be hungry already!
 NEGATIVE FORMS
MUSTN’T
Don’t use mustn’t for speculations, just use CAN’T.

MAY NOT/MIGHT NOT

We can use these modal verbs but they aren’t used contracted.

COULDN’T
Don’t use couldn’t for speculations, just used MAY/MIGHT NOT

CAN’T
This is the correct form but we are not going to use CAN in the
affirmative, we use MUST.
 Past forms
MODAL + HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE
MUST
You must have known the answers before you did the exam,
you did it perfect!

MAY/MIGHT/COULD
I can’t find my keys, I may have forgotten them on my desk at work.

CAN’T
Your plate empty already? You can’t have eaten all that food in a minute.
1. Look at that guy's enormous muscles. He ________________ (work out) a lot.
2. We ___________________ (know) about this; nobody told us anything about it.
3. She goes camping every weekend. She ________________ (love) the outdoors.
4. He worked hard on his report, then accidentally deleted the file from his computer. He
______________ (be) upset.
5.They ate every bite of their dinner - they ___________________ (enjoy) the food.
6. We're not sure if this painting is an original. It ________________ be worth thousands of dollars.
7. I ________________ not be able to go to the football game. It depends on whether I can get the
afternoon off from work.
8. He's working full-time and studying for his Ph.D. That ________________ (be) easy.
9. He broke two of the plates while washing the dishes. He ___________________ (be) careful.
10.Wow - look at that diamond necklace. It ________________ cost a fortune.
11. It ___________________ have rained a lot last night - there are puddles everywhere.
12. Michelle ________________ (want) to participate in the festival - it seems like
the type of thing she'd be interested in. Why don’t you ask her?
13. He ___________________ (finish) a 500-page book in a single day! When did he read it?
14. She never showed up. She ___________________ (forget) about our appointment.
15. You ________________ be right - but I'm going to check to make sure.
.