Understanding Modal Verbs: A Complete Guide for Grammar Enthusiasts

hello grammarians today we're going to talk about a class of auxiliary or helper verbs called the modal verbs

these are verbs that have special properties and help other verbs but what is modality

my fellow grammarian i am so glad you asked modality is when we use these verbs to express conditions on stuff so

we can use these verbs to determine if something is likely to happen or certain to have happened

whether or not something is possible or whether or not we have the ability to do something

whether or not we have the permission to do something and whether or not we have the obligation or requirement or need to

do something you already know all of these verbs i promise you you just didn't know this

name for them let's meet the modals roll call here we go may

might must can

could shall should

will would those are the modals

so here's what modal verbs can do thing number one they agree with everything so you can

take any one of these modals and you can use any subject in the world and it's not going to change right you take a

word like talk for instance and you'd say i talk diane talks

right you add the s but any subject in any sentence is going to take the modal verb the same way let me show you

i can do it you can do it she can do it they can do it we can do it it's all the same

they agree with everything something else that modals do is actually something that they don't do

they don't have a two form this is what we call the infinitive so there's no such thing as

to may or to could that just doesn't exist so modals don't have infinitives

you can't say i want to should it doesn't that is an illegal operation in english it is ungrammatical it

doesn't matter what version of english you speak across all varieties of english you cannot too should

and finally a thing that modal verbs can do is indicate modality which like we said establishes conditions so let's

take a look at some examples so the word must right

we can use the word must in a couple of different ways so if you imagine

a detective looking up from some tracks some muddy boot prints on the floor

with her magnifying glass she looks up and she says he must have gone that way

that detective is saying is using must to express like a likelihood a high likelihood this must have happened but

if you're at an amusement park and the roller coaster you want to ride has a height requirement the sign probably

says you must be this tall to ride the doom coaster this is like a necessary condition

by a similar token if you enter someone's house and they demand that you take off your shoes they would say you

must remove your shoes similarly with may we can use may to express a possibility like saying it may

rain that's something that could possibly happen or to give someone permission like you may enter

you can use a word like can to express ability you could say i can eat 10 pounds of

broccoli and that's expressing your ability to do a thing we also use modal verbs like this to

talk about conditions or stuff that isn't going to happen or maybe could happen uh and so

for example in this sentence we would say i would make the bed but i'm tired because the possibility exists however

remote that the bed would be made by me but i don't feel like it so i'm using wood to offer an excuse i'm

saying this could possibly happen this would happen except for this one other problem which is that i'm sleepy

you can also use modal verbs to give advice to someone as in you shouldn't do that

and something that is special to will and to a lesser extent shall is that they can form the future

shall used to be a lot more popular and it still is in british english but less so in standard american so you would say

he will win the competition or he shall win the competition and use of this modal verb will or shall indicates that

that thing that you're talking about is happening in the future these verbs are very powerful you should

learn how to use them and in fact if you can complete the exercises then you will master these tricky verbs

you can learn anything dave it out