Modal Verbs.
They have
special characteristics:
- They always have the same form, no matter the subject of the sentence.
- They work as auxiliary verbs, that is, they make their own negative (by adding "not") and interrogative form (through subject-verb inversion) without any other auxiliary verb.
- They are defective verbs, that is, they do not have all the tenses.
- They are always followed by another verb in the infinitive without "to". Modal verbs add some meaning to the verbs that goes after them. We can see this special meaning which corresponds to the different modals in the chart below:
Meaning...
in the
|
Present time
|
Past time
|
Future time
|
ABILITY
|
can (can't)
|
could (couldn't)
was/were(n't) able to
|
will be able to
|
PERMISSION
|
can (n't)
could(n't)
may (not)
|
was/were(n't) allowed to
|
will be allowed to
|
ADVICE
|
should(n't)
ought (not) to
|
||
OBLIGATION
|
must
have to
need to
|
had to
|
will have to
|
PROHIBITION
|
mustn't
|
||
LACK OF OBLIGATION
|
don't/doesn't have to
don't need to
|
didn't have to
didn't need to
|
won't have to
won't need to
|
POSSIBILITY
|
could
may
might
|
||
CERTAINTY
|
(positive) must
(negative) can't
|
You can practice modals in many pages, here are some:
You may
find many more in the internet but I think these are enough!! I hope you still
work a little, it's just two weeks to go, one final effort!!!
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