MODAL VERBS

By Esther Curiel

Can

• Something=sth. possible/allowed

• Ability• Request• Permission Informal

Can’t

• Impossibility

Can’t

Could

• Suggestions• Not realistic actions• Possible but less sure• Polite request

Could

COULDN’T

• Impossibility

MUSTN’T

• Prohibition

MUSTN’T

MUST

• Obligation imposed by the speaker

• Authority: mum, doctor, employer

• In written rules and instructions

• To give your opinion• Almost certainty

MUST

Have to

• To say sth is compulsory• External obligation

Have to

Don’t have to

• Lack of necessity.

Needn’t / Don’t need to

• Lack of necessity.

Had to

• Past necessity.

Be able to

• General ability.

Managed to

• Once = 1 time.

May

• Polite request• Possibility in the future

Might

• Possibility in the future• If the situation is not real

Might

Should / Ought to

• Polite suggestion• Give advice

Shall

• Offer

Shall

Will

• Polite request• Spontaneous decision• Certainty, prediction

Will

Would

• Past form of will• Polite request

.Finish the joke…

• We don’t make traps that big.