modal verbs

modal verbs / modals in english grammar

modal verbs

Read the passage carefully:

Students are the future hopes and aspirations of a nation. You are students. You have a lot of responsibilities. You should do your duties properly. You should read your lessons regularly. You must not waste your time. You may not understand a lesson by reading once or twice. In that case, you should read again and again. You must give full attention. You ought to obey your parents and teachers. You have to study as it is your main business. Besides it, you can do social work. You can help your parents in different ways. You can plant trees. You have to motivate people that they need not cut down trees indiscriminately. Tell people that the country is going to be a desert because of deforestation.

In the passage there are can, could, may, might, should, need, dare, shall, will, ought to, used to have to etc. They are modals. 

What is modal verbs?

Modals are some auxiliary verbs. Hence, they are called Modal Auxiliaries. 

Ask and answer:

1. Does the passage contain auxiliary verbs? Pick out them. 

2. Are they all modal auxiliaries? Arrange them in your exercise book.

Read the passage again and complete the following with modals : 

Students not waste their time. They have a lot of duties. They not put off their lessons for tomorrow. They prepare the lessons regularly. A bright student -- - learn the lesson easily. But a weak student --- ---- read it again and again. He/she- read with full concentration. All students - obey their teachers. They -- - respect their parents. They - to love their motherland. They to work for the development of the country.

Let us know more about the uses of some modals

May' is used to denote:

a) Permission : You may go now. May I come in, Sir? 

b) Possibility : He may pass. It may rain today. 

c) A wish : May you be happy. May God bless you.

d)A purpose: He works hard that he may pass. We eat that we may live.

'Might' is used to denote: 

a) Request : Might I go now?

b) Unfulfilled Condition : He might have recovered if he had proper nursing 

c) Weak possibility : He might go tomorrow. 

d) A past action : He might have gone.

'Can' is used to express : 

a) Power or ability : He can run. I can help you. 

b) Permission : You can go now.

'Could' is used as : 

a) Polite request : Could you tell me the way to the station? 

b) Past tense of can : He could not attend school on account of illness.

Must has no change of form. It refers only to present and future times. 

Must is used to express :

a) Compulsion : You must do it. 

b) Duty : We must obey our parents. 

c) Determination : I must go there. 

d) Certainty : We must all die. He must be mad. 

e) Past certainty : He is returning. He must have 

Shall, Will, Should, Ought to, Need, Dare

Shall & Will are used to denote simple future action: (i) I shall do it; (ii) He will do it.

Should is used to express:

a)Duty or obligation:

You should go there. 

You should obey your teachers. 

b) Modesty in the first person:

I should like to invite them.

C)  Condition Should: 

Should you go there, 

I would punish you (If you should go there, 

I would punish you) 

I desire that he should win.

d) Desire, intention, anxiety:

I intend that my son should be a lawyer. 

I should go if I were you. 

I am anxious that he should pass.

e) Advice/Recommendation 

He should stop smoking: 

Past obligation: 

You should have done it.

Should is used in the subordinate clause that begins with 'lest': Walk fast lest you should miss the train.

'Ought to' is used to express:

Obligation/Duty:

We ought to love our motherland.

You ought to respect your parents. 

Past obligation Need means:

You ought to have come early. 

Needs Means:

a) To want (as a principal verb) 

b) To be under necessity (as a modal)

To want

He needs rest

He needs to go.

He does not need to go. (Negative) 

Does he need to go? (Interrogative)

To be under the necessity: 

He need not go there.

Need he go there?

(Note: It is used only in Negative and Interrogative sentences. Infinitive 'to' remains omitted. No's' or 'es' is used for third person singular subject)

Need is used to express the past idea: 

You need not have gone there.

(a) Dare is used in the sense of challenge: 

He dares me to fight. (Present tense) 

He dared me to fight. (Past tense) 

I dare you to do it.

 

(b) Dare is used in the sense of Venture: (In Negative and Interrogative sentences)

He dare not do it.

Dare he do it? No, he dare not

He dares to do it. (In affirmative sentence infinitive 'to' is used)

c) In the past tense, either dared or durst is used.

He dared not do it /He durst not do it.

He dared do it/He durst to do it.

Dared he do it?/Durst he to do it?

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