MODAL AUXILIARIES

*Core modal verbs: can/could, may/might, must, shall/should, will/would.

*Semi-modal verbs: ought to, need, dare, used to.

Modal verbs are considered to be a type of auxiliary verb with their own particularities.

They add certain kind of meanings that main verbs are not able to imply by themselves, for
example, certainty, possibility and probability: I’ll/ might see you later. Obligation or freedom to
act: You have to finish your work before leaving. Have you finished? Then, you may go now.

Often, the same modal form can be used with different meanings, depending on context (e.g.
may).

Modality deals with another group of verbs named in three different ways: ‘semi-modal’
verbs, ‘non-typical’ or ‘marginal’ modal verbs. The reason is that such verbs may behave
grammatically like lexical verbs in some ways and, in some circumstances, they are
grammatically like core modals.

1. General characteristics

1. Most modals only have a present form

2. Some others do have a past form, however, they are regarded as ‘historical past forms’ not
used to express the past but to refer to either the present or future time conveying a greater
tentativeness, distance and politeness: can/could, may/might, shall/should, will/would

3. Do not have a third person form. She may, he can.

4. They are followed by the bare infinitive of a lexical or auxiliary verb; except ‘ought to’. You
can go now. We might be leaving soon. It might have got lost in the post.

5. They don’t have an infinitive form, nor present participle (-ing) or past participle, e.g. I’d like
to can speak German, would be wrong to say, instead: I’d like to be able to speak German.
Therefore, if you want to express the future of some of these modals, you will need to use
their lexical verb equivalent: can-will be able; If I work hard on this, I will probably be able
to get a good mark in the exam.

6. Their past form is often the composition of Modal Verb + have + past participle: He can’t
have broken the window. We should have thought of that earlier.

7. The expression of the passive with Modal Verbs follows this structure: MV + be + past
participle. Doors should be kept locked at all times.

8. Form the negative by adding “not” (do is never used) and admit contractions: cannot/can’t,
couldn’t, mightn’t, daren’t, etc. ‘mayn’t’ is very rare and ‘shall not’ becomes ‘shan’t’

9. Form the interrogative by direct Subject-Verb inversion -“do” is never to be used: can I ask
you a favour? Should they be allowed to enter? Need she stay longer?

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10. They can be found in short answers and Question tags. Should I stay? Yes, you should.

11. To express emphasis. He cannot swim but I can.

12. To avoid repetition of a previous main v. I couldn’t open the window; neither could he.

Let us look into each modal verb in detail now.

2. Can/Could

 Present can and past could;

 Affirmative, negative and interrogative. Cannot/can’t; Could not/couldn’t; Can I? Could I?
 The rest of the missing forms are supplied by “to be able ”. I shall be able to do it. He will
be able to fix it.

Uses of Can:

1. Natural ability or general truths: Birds can fly.

2. Natural behaviour or state of people/things: He can be very rude. It can be very cold here.

3. Learned ability/ to know how to: She can speak German. I can swim quite well.

4. Permission (less formal than may): Can I come in? (May I come in?)

5. Prohibition in neg.: No you can’t go yet.

6. Possibility - general and/or theoretical possibilities: In summer, temperature here can reach
35º. Lisa can be really moody sometimes. Anyone can make mistakes (differences with may,
might and could which refer to present or future possibility)

7. Negative deduction, very certain: That can’t be John, he’s in France (‘must’ in affirmative)

8. Requests: Can you do me a favour?

9. Can + Verbs of perception: hear, see… I can hear him but I cannot see him.

Uses of Could:

1. Natural ability (past of can): I couldn’t lift the case, it was too heavy

2. Learned ability (past of can): She could play piano when she was a child

3. Polite request: Could you open the door, please?

4. Possibility=might: The road could be closed (though ambiguous)

5. Permission (less formal than may): Could I go and play in the garden?

6. Indirect speech: He said I could stay for the night.

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3. May/ Might

 Present may and past might.

 May not/mayn’t (not common); might not/mightn’t; may I? Might he?

Uses of May:

1. Permission, formal: May I come in?

May in its sense of permission can be extended to other tenses by “ to be allowed”: Martin
won’t be allowed in the press conference.

2. Prohibition in the negative form only, formal: You may not smoke here, sir.

3. Possibility:
 present or future possibility: It may rain tomorrow. It may not be true (but not: it cannot be
true- impossibility)
 may + have + past participle: something possibly happened in the past: Jay may have
called while we were out (also could and might)

4. Polite requests: May I have a cup of tea?

5. Concessive meaning: It may be expensive, but it is much better.

6. Wish in subjunctive, very formal: I hope she may get the job. May you have many children!

7. Purpose in subjunctive subordination, very formal: Give them something to eat, so they may
not starve.

Uses of Might

1. Possibility (remote): It might rain tomorrow.

2. Permission requests (v. polite): Might I have a word with you?
3. Purpose: I’ve bought you this sofa so you might be more comfortable.
4. Concessive meaning: It might be more expensive but it is better.
5. Indirect speech (past of may): She said she might come.
6. Idiomatic expressions: You might as well do it (there is sufficient reason). You might try to be
more careful (reproach)

4. Must
 Only one form for the present and past.
 Missing tenses can be covered by “have to”. I must do what the law says. He had to do
what his boss demanded. You will have to cope with it somehow.
 Negative: must not or mustn’t. Interrogative: must they?

Note that although must has the value of a past tense, it is often preferred to use “had to” in
the past.

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Uses:

1. Obligation with different connotations:

- Moral duty: You must respect your teachers.
- Command: You must be back before 11pm.
- Need: We must hurry if we want to catch the bus.
- Advice: You must visit the Prado Museum. You must lose weight.
* ‘mustn’t’ indicates prohibition. You mustn’t speed.
* Absence of obligation is indicated by ‘needn’t’ or ‘don’t have to’.

2. Affirmative logical deduction/assumption/prediction or logical necessity.

* negative deduction is expressed by can’t
He must be over thirty. They can’t have arrived yet.

3. Indirect speech: must or had to according to the case of obligation:

You must respect the law; he said I must respect the law.
You must start earlier; he said that I have to start earlier.

Differences Must and Have to:

- If they express the need to do sth. both can be used. You must/ have to come tomorrow at 6.
- If we mean an unavoidable moral duty or assumption/prediction, use ‘ must’. You must respect
the law.
-To talk about externally imposed obligation, ‘must’ is more common in written language
whereas ‘have to’ or ‘have got to’ is used in speech. Children must/have to wear uniform in this
school.

5. Shall/ Should
Originally ‘shall’ meant obligation; in present day English it has a variety of uses which more or
less reflect that original meaning.

 Present: Shall (‘ll), past: Should (‘d). Affirmative and neg. shall not/shan’t, should
not/shouldn’t.
 Contraction should be avoided to differentiate Shall (more emphatic) from Will.

Uses of Shall:

1. Future auxiliary with the 1st person sing. and plural. As the Subject and Shall/Will are usually
contracted, we don’t hear the use of Shall very often.

We can also use ‘shall’ for emphasis, not only in the first person but also in the 2 nd and 3rd
person instead of ‘will’: I shall never return.

2. Suggestions (always with the 1st person sing. and plu.): Shall I close the window? Shall I call
a taxi? (will is never used).

3. Promise: You shall have your bicycle, my son.

4. Command: You shall do as you’re told (stronger than ‘will’).

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5. Threat: You shan’t go to the party if you misbehave (stronger than ‘will’).

6. Resolute determination of futurity ‘shall’ with every person. They shall not pass. We shall
overcome (Venceremos!)

7. Official instructions: Candidates shall be experienced drivers (also should)

Uses of Should:

1. Moral duty, suitability, advice: You should tell your father. You should lose weight.

2. Possibility, contingency, chance: sometimes in subordinate conditional clauses:

- Possibility: If you should see him, please tell him…

- Contingency: Should you have any trouble, contact me.
- Chance / surprise: And who should I see there but my boss with his pants down?

3. Prediction, assumption: John should be here in a minute (=must)

4. Rhetorical questions: How should I know? (I don’t know)

5. Official instructions: Drivers should have their licenses in order.

6. Indirect speech: ‘shall’ becomes ‘should’ (its past form). Two meanings to be distinguished:

- Instructions: You shall start at 7 am. He said I should start at 7am

- Q’s in the future: Shall I pass my exam? I wondered if I should pass the exam.

7. Subjunctive for hypothetical meaning: It is unnecessary that he should get angry. (that he
get angry)

Differences Should and Must

- Both mean duty, however ‘must’ is more categorical than ‘should’.

- ‘Must’ is found in the present and ‘should’ as a conditional (which is more suitable for the
idea of advice / appropriateness, it’s more polite and tactful):

Notice the difference between: You must eat less v.s. You should eat less.

6. Will/ Would
 Affirmative: will, would;
 Contracted ‘ll, ‘d;
 Neg.: will not/won’t , would not/wouldn’t

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Uses of Will

1. Future aux. as seen above.

2. Polite requests, invitations: Will you please give me the key? Will you have another tea?

3. Volition/ willingness: 1st p. instead of shall. I will help you. He won’t do it. If you will marry
me, I’ll be very happy. (esp. Go where you will)

4. Assumption, prediction: That will be the plumber.

5. Inherent characteristics: Oil will float/floats on water. (Can and the present ‘is’ are more
common.

6. Commands: You will sit here. (‘shall’ is stronger)

7. Insistence in doing sth that the speaker does not like: He will keep on interrupting all the
time (siempre esta interrumpiendo). He will go on gambling and drinking (siempre esta
apostando y bebiendo). The engine won’t start (el motor no se enciende )

8. Habit, custom: She will be the first to wake up (siempre se levanta la primera )

9. Natural tendency: Boys will be boys (los niños son niños)

10. Inevitability: Accidents will happen (los accidents ocurren).

Uses of Would

1. Conditional auxiliary.

2. Polite requests or invitations: Would you have another drink?

3. Habit or custom in the past (behaviour): He would pick me up from work every evening.

4. Volition / willingness: He would not tell me where he had hidden the key. If you would do
the cooking, I’d do the washing up (instead of using the past tense) .

5. Insistence which the speaker finds irritating: You would do it alone. He wouldn’t stop talking!

6. Assumption, modest opinion, prediction or suggestion: That would be the river Thames. You
would have been a young man then.

7. Indirect speech (‘will’ in DS becomes ‘would’ in IS): He said we would eat at 1 o’clock.

8. Exclamative wishes: This is an old fashioned form of I wish I had never met her. Would that I had
never met her.

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7. Ought to

 Present, affirmative and neg.: ought to; ought not to/oughtn’t to.
 There is no past form, instead “ought to have + pp” can be used. We ought to have phoned.
 There is no interrogative form, instead: Do you think we ought to phone?

Uses:

1. It is similar to ‘should’ (advise and duty), but it is far less frequent: You ought to eat less.
You ought to study more.

2. Strong probability (=must): They ought to be here soon.

8. Need? Needn’t to express lack of obligation

a) ‘Need’ as a lexical verb can be followed by a noun, an –ing form or an infinitive with ‘to’.

It is used when the verb complement is a noun phrase or equivalent (-ing): You don’t
need an invitation. The edge doesn’t need cutting.

b) As a special modal verb, ‘need’ is generally used in the interrogative and negative forms
referring to present time:

Need you be so sarcastic? You need not/needn’t be so sarcastic (=absence of obligation).

You needn’t come tomorrow.

‘Needn’t’, expresses lack of obligation similarly to ‘must not’ / ‘does not have to’, not to be
confused with ‘to need’ (must have).

As it has no past form, we can use ‘needn’t have + pp’ instead to express that the speaker
considers the events unnecessary: You needn’t have come.

To express the absence of obligation in the past, we use ‘did’ or ‘didn’t’ as operators. Did you
need to behave like that) (also ‘have to’)

9. Dare?

‘Dare’ exists as a full verb and as a special auxiliary verb with the same meaning (to be brave enough
to do something difficult or dangerous, or to be rude or foolish enough to do something that you have no right to do) .

- ‘Dare’ as a special verb is used in interrogative and negative sentences (dare, dare not,
daren’t, dare he?). It is followed by the bare infinitive.

Dare you tell him? Yes, I do/ Yes, I dare (the first option, though, is more common)

- ‘Dare’ as lexical verb can be followed by to-inf. as well as without it.

I dare him to deny it. Do you dare (to) tell him the news?

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- Note the following idiom: ‘I daresay /I dare say’ is used to express agreement or think that
something is true:

"She's got a lot of admirers." "I daresay - she's very beautiful."

He gets paid a lot of money, but I daresay (that) he earns it.

10. Used to

Forms: this is a past form. It can be used as affirmative, negative and interrogative: used to,
used not to, usedn’t to (rare), didn’t use to (contemporary), used he to? (rare), did he use to?
(contemporary)

He used to do it. He usedn’t to do it. Used he to do it?

Uses:
1. It shows that an action which happened in the past has stopped. I used to think that too.

2. To express habitual actions in the past. I used to play piano at school. Did your brother use to do it as
well? No, he didn’t / he usedn’t.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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4. A.Downing, P. Locke. “English Grammar. A University Course”. Prentice Hall Int. UK. 1992
5. J. Easwood. “An Oxford Guide to Grammar”. OUP, 2002
6. O. Jespersen. “Modern English Grammar on Historical Terms”. Allen & Unwin. London,
1965
7. O. Jespersen. “The Essentials of Modern E. Grammar”. Allen & Unwin. London, 1972
8. HR. Palmer. “Grammar”. Penguin. Harmmondsworth, 1971
9. Quirk & Greenbaum. “A University Grammar of E.”. Longman, London 1973
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11. M. Swam. “Practical English Usage”. OUP, Oxford, 2002
12. G. Leech. “A Communicative Grammar of E.” Longman, London 1993
13. Widdowson. “Teaching English as Communication. OUP. 1978

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