The strange behaviour of modal verbs

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So what are modal verbs and how do they work? A modal verb is
used to express necessity or possibility. English modal verbs
are:

 will
 would
 shall
 should
 can
 could
 may
 might
 must
 ought to.

Grammatically, they don’t behave quite like other verbs.

1. Modal verbs have fewer forms than other verbs. For example,
‘stay’ is a verb and has the forms to stay, staying, stayed. These
forms do not exist for modal verbs; you cannot say to must,
musting, or musted

2. They are odd in their relationship to time. Some of them form

pairs: will/would, shall/should, can/could and may/might. The first
form in each pair is used about present and future time. The
second form can be used about either past or present and future
time.
 These modal verbs are present in form, and present/future in
meaning:
- will, shall, can, may

These are past in form, but not necessarily in meaning:

- would, should, could, might

These only have one form:

- must, ought to

3. When we make negatives and questions, a regular verb behaves

like this:

You understand him. > You don’t understand him.

You understand him. > Do you understand him?

‘Not’ is attached to ‘do’, and ‘do’ is also used to make questions

(DO + subject + verb). But with modal verbs, ‘do’ is not needed:

I can help you. > I can’t help you.

I can help you. > Can I help you?

‘Not’ attaches to the modal verb, and it can also be used to make
questions. All we need to do is change the word order (MODAL
+ subject + verb).

4. There are two semi-modals, need and dare which can be used

as either modal verbs or regular verbs.

As regular verbs, with ‘do’:

 You don’t need to worry about it.

 Do we need to be concerned about it?

 Don’t you dare contradict me!

 As modal verbs, without ‘do’:

 You needn’t worry about it.

 Need we be concerned about it?
 I daren’t contradict her.

Finally, the expressions have to and have got to are modal in

meaning (similar to need and must), but grammatically they behave
like regular verbs.

© University of Leicester

Summary of modal verbs

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Modal verbs can express either ‘control’ or ‘likelihood’. We have

seen that their ‘past forms’ can convey past time but may also
indicate less confidence, or tentativeness, or that an event is
hypothetical or unreal. In contrast, ‘present forms’ can express
present time, or greater confidence and directness.

Past Time or Tentativeness

Present Time or Confidence Certainty
Speculation/hypothesis

Can Could
May Might

Will Would

This means that modal verbs have multiple potential meanings and
are often ambiguous. To interpret them we need to pay attention to:

 the relationship between the speakers (especially in terms of

power)
 the surrounding context

and in spoken language to:

 how the utterance is said (including stress, intonation, body

language and facial expressions)

One approach to teaching and learning about modal verbs is for

learners to investigate samples of authentic texts, as we have done in
some of the activities in this part of the week.