Modal Verbs
by Erick Brito
1. Type of modal Verbs
2. Probability: First, they can be used when we want to say how sure we are that something happened / is happening / will happen. We often call these 'modals of deduction' or 'speculation' or 'certainty' or 'probability'. Ability We use 'can' and 'could' to talk about a skill or ability. Permission We can use verbs such as 'can', 'could' and 'may' to ask for and give permission. We also use modal verbs to say something is not allowed. Habits We can use 'will' and 'would' to talk about habits or things we usually do, or did in the past. Past modals The past modals 'could have + past participle', 'should have + past participle' and 'would have + past participle' can be confusing. I explain about them here.
3. The list of modal verbs includes: Can, could, may, might, will, would, must, shall, should and ought to.
4. Reason because modals are different from normal verbs: 1: They don't use an 's' for the third person singular. 2: They make questions by inversion ('she can go' becomes 'can she go?'). 3: They are followed directly by the infinitive of another verb (without 'to').
