Modal Verbs in English - Part 1

Modal verbs are one of the trickiest and most panic inducing topics among English language learners. For an example of modal verb usage in the real world you can read up the difference between must and have to.

All modal verbs, share some commonalities. The first one is that they make questions by inversion (e.g., can we go?), the second is that they don't use an 's' for the third person singular (e.g., he must go!), the third is that they are followed directly by the infinitive of another verb, with no "to" (e.g., I will go), and the fourth is that they do not have an infinitive form.

Modal verbs in English can be used to express Ability and Possibility, Certainty and Expectation, Obligation and Advice, Habits, and Permissions. Here below you can find a short summary of how you could use modal verbs in everyday propositions: 

• Use must (present) and must have (past) when you are very certain that something is/was true.
• Use can’t (present) and couldn’t have (past) when you are very certain that something is/was impossible.
• Use should/shouldn’t (present) and should have / shouldn’t have (past) to talk about things you expect to be true, although you don’t have complete certainty.
• You can also use should have / shouldn’t have for judging actions in the past to be good or bad.
• Use might (most common), may, or could to talk about present and future possibilities.
• Use might have, may have, or could have to talk about past possibilities.
• For a possibility that something did NOT happen, use might not have and may not have.

Sometimes modal verbs can be complicated, but don't feel overwhelmed! If you have any doubts about them and their usage in different contexts, you can reach out to CoffeeStrap's teachers!