practical grammar MODAL VERBS

AUXILIARY VERBS
primary auxiliary: be; have; do
modal auxiliary: will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might, must, ought to,
used to, dare, need
[1] There are only thirteen (ten? twelve?) modal auxiliary verbs, but they are used with
very great frequency and in a wide range of meanings. They express concepts or attitudes
relating to recommendation, obligation, necessity, and prohibition; permission and
refusal; possibility, expectation, probability and certainty; promise and intention,
ability and willingness.

[2] There are four paired forms - can, could; may, might; shall, should; will, would;
and five single forms - must, ought, (need, dare, used to).
The three latter verbs are nowadays called semi-modals, i.e. verbs that share some of the
characteristics of modals.
[3] The principal distinctive formal features of modal verbs are the following:
(a) Modals never use other auxiliaries when forming questions or negatives. To form
interrogatives we use inversion, to form negatives we use not after the modal and before
the verb. Modals are auxiliaries for themselves: Will you come? You mustn't
worry so much.
(b) Modals never change form. They do not have -ed, -s, or -ing endings: Maria may join
us.
(c) Modals are followed by the infinitive of a verb without to (except in the case of
ought):
I may meet her tomorrow.
I ought to speak to your father.
[4] The modal verbs (including dare and need as modals) have no infinitive form, and no
participle forms; no other forms then the ones listed, and all modals are therefore, to
varying degrees, 'defective' verbs.
Hence the need on occasion for a number of more or less synonymous expressions having a
fuller range of forms. These verbs always use to. They include:
be able to, have to, are / is / was to, be allowed to, be supposed to, manage to:
I'm supposed to have let them know my decision by today.
Will we be allowed to bring our own food?
I'd like to be able to speak English fluently. (infinitive)
No one has been able to solve the problem. (present perfect)
I'm having to read this very carefully. (present progressive)
You will have to pay extra for a single room. (infinitive without 'to')
[5] The modal verbs are also limited in their range of time reference. When used with the
'present' infinitive of the main verb, they generally have a present or future time reference:
He can or could
may or might
shall or should
must
ought to help you (e. g.) immediately, later
The use of the past forms could, might, would, should, suggests a more tentative attitude on
the part of the speaker. In requests, it represents what is commonly called the 'polite' form:
'Would you do me a favour?'
'Could you pass the sugar, please?'
[6] It is misleading to regard could as the equivalent in past time of can, might as the
equivalent of may, etc. Of the four past tense forms (could, might, would, should), only the
first three are used to refer to past time when followed by a present infinitive, and then only
within a restricted range of meanings:
He could speak several languages by the time he was ten.
He was very independent, and would never ask for help.
Try as he might, he couldn't get the car to start.
The use of the four past tense forms is, however, automatic in the sequence of tenses in
reported speech.
The five single forms must, ought to, dare, need, used to, may be left unchanged in reported
speech:

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY USES OF MODALS

MODAL VERBS have two main uses: primary and secondary. In their primary use, they
closely reflect the meanings often given first in most dictionaries and are defective, that is,
they need other full verbs to make up their 'missing parts'. For example, must has no 'past'
form, so we refer to obligation in the past with had to:
I must go (now). I had to go (then).
Their past forms (if available) in the vast majority of cases refer to real past.
The primary meanings of modal verbs are as follows:
- can/could relate mainly to ability or permission: I can lift 25 kg.
- may/might relate mainly to permission: You may leave early.
- will/would relate mainly to prediction: It will rain soon.
- shall after I/We relates mainly to prediction: Can we find our way
home? - I'm sure we shall.
- should/ought to relate mainly to escapable obligation (recommendation): You should do
as you're told.
- must relates mainly to inescapable obligation: You must be quiet.
- needn't relates to absence of obligation: You needn't wait.
In their secondary use, all modal verbs (except shall) express degrees of certainty, with
might expressing the highest degree of uncertainty and can't/must expressing the highest
degree of certainty. In their secondary use, modal verbs have only two forms:
- present: You must be right.
- perfect and past (always expressing ‘unreal past’): You must have been right.

SEMI-MODALS
The verbs need, dare and used to are sometimes called semi-modals because they can
behave like modal verbs or like full verbs, for example:
You needn't leave yet. (need behaving like a modal verb)
You don't need to leave yet. (need behaving like an ordinary verb)
Used always takes the to-infinitive and occurs only in the past tense. It may take the do-
construction, in which case the spellings use and used /ju:st/ both occur:
He didn't use to smoke.
The interrogative construction Used he to smoke? is <esp BrE>. Did he use(d) to smoke? is
preferred in both <AmE> and <BrE>. However, a different construction is often a more
natural choice, for example:
Did he smoke when you first knew him?

Dare and need can be constructed

(A) as modal auxiliaries (with bare infinitive and without the inflected forms) or
(B) as main verbs (with to-infinitive, -s inflection and past forms).

The modal auxiliary construction is mainly restricted to negative and interrogative

sentences, whereas the main verb construction can always be used and is in fact the
more common.
Dare and need as auxiliaries are probably rarer in <AmE> than in <BrE>.
NEED, DARE MODAL AUXILIARY MAIN VERB
positive - He needs to go now.
He dares to go now.
negative He needn't go now. He doesn't need to go now.
He daren’t go now. He doesn’t dare to go now.
interrogative Need he go now? Does he need to go now?
Dare he go now? Does he dare to go now?
negative-interrogative Needn't he go yet? Doesn't he need to go yet?
Daren’t he go yet? Doesn’t he dare to go yet?

Note
[a] The modal auxiliary construction is not confined to negative and/or interrogative
sentences but can also occur in other contexts with similar meanings, for example,
He need do it only under these circumstances.
He need do it but once.
He need have no fear.
No soldier dare disobey.
Nobody would dare predict.....
All you need do is ... (‘You need do no more than...’)

DARE -
A mixture of the two constructions is sometimes found in the case of dare, which may have
the do-construction with a bare infinitive: We did not dare speak...
DARE is also unique in that we can say: I didn’t dare to / I daren’t / I dared not mention it
to him yesterday.
PRACTICE SHEET 1

Ex. I: Determine the meaning of the modal verbs used in the sentences below:

1. I will not live there again until it belongs to me.

2. It will be very moving.
3. You must show respect.
4. I shall be away in London a good deal.
5. Edmund, you will not be difficult, please.
6. This will all belong to you.
7. Edmund, you will come down here at once.
8. My mother can't afford to buy us a house.
9. We cannot sing all day.
10. 'Then if Hitler invades, will you come to England?' 'And if I could not – would you come
there?’
11. You mean, today you should either be here with other singers, or at this concert.
12. I could hardly judge our performance.
13. Small she might be, but she was a miniature tank.
14. But what a chance for me if I could win tickets for Bayreuth.
15. When I could interrupt her I murmured that I'd always thought that beloved Furher was
Austrian.
16. We must go, Irma. My music teacher will be expecting us to join her.
17. There is no way you can help.
18. Welfare officials at migrant hotels are often shocked by the rapid disintegration they see in
the morale of a migrant when he cannot find anyone who thinks him worth employing.
19, In Western Australia, about half of the population of a housing estate called Lynwood are
British. You can hear the accents in the supermarket.
20. We had made it clear Granny could come if she wanted.
21. If we meant what we had said about wanting her to come, we obviously had to be able to
write to her, as we did, and talk about 'her' room.
22. She can't speak English. She's Dutch.
23. We ate a meal which must have been a very late lunch.
24. I think they may have had cold lamb.
25. The young man suggested we might like to look at some land at the other side of the road.
26. You will find trees, shrubs, flowers and home all combining to provide coolness in the
summer, the best use of the sunny days in winter and colour, perfume and privacy all the year
round.
27. We almost knocked at the door to ask if we could come in for tea and crumpets.
28. You won't be in need of a holiday when the home is complete.
29. We had to think about it now.
30. A man who has brought his family half-way round the world to a new life will do almost
anything rather than settle for a cheap home.
31. We cannot expect them - lonely and uneasy, needing time and friendliness and
understanding - to turn to Australians overnight.
32. Every speech ought to be put together like a living creature, with a body of its own, so as
to be neither without head or without feet, but to have both a middle and extremities.
33. You can have the best ideas in the world (...) but if you are unable to organise your ideas
(...) you might not speak at all.
34. You must plan you conversation just as an architect develops a plan for a building.
35. You should also test potential patterns to determine which helps you to clarify and amplify
your ideas
36. Your introductory remarks and concluding statements should each occupy approximately
10-15%.
37. The point is you must select a particular orientation and carry it through.
38. The first task might be to establish in the minds of your listeners that the problem really
exists.
39. Just as fashion designers must create an interesting pattern (...) you must select an
appealing pattern for your presentation.
40. Whenever you feel yourself becoming defensive, you might experience one or more of the
following symptoms: a change in voice tone, etc.
41. Another behaviour that can function to increase defensiveness in group members is
neutrality.
42. You must suspend judgement and honestly believe that the conflict can potentially be
resolved in a variety of ways.
43. Your goal should not be to have fewer conflicts but rather to make those that you have
constructive.
44. How to become an effective speaker? Of course you must work at it.
45. For some speeches you may be required to deliver a detailed report.
46. You might be interested in making the students in your class think or behave in a
particular way.
47. You may also consult bibliographical sources and encyclopedias.
48. For instance you might be able to discover the percentage of students interested in
enrolling for such courses.
49. He lacked only children. Esther could not conceive.