Modal Verbs

Modal verbs

What are Modal Verbs ?

Modal Verbs are special verbs which behave very differently from normal verbs. Here are some important differences.

• 1.Modal verbs do not take “-s” in the third person

Example:

• -He can speak Chinese.
• -She should be here by 9:00.

• 2.You use “not” to make modal verbs negative, even in Simple Present and Simple Past.

Example :

• -He should not be late.
• -They might not come to the party.

• 3.Many modal verbs cannot be used in the past tense or the future tenses.

Example:

• -He will can go with us. Not correct
• -SheMusted study very hard.Not correct  

Common Modal Verbs

Can   Could

May    might   Must

Ought  to

Shell     Should

Will        Would

          For the purposes of this tutorial, we have included some expressions which are not modalverbs including had better, have to, and have got to . These expression are closely related to modals in meaning and are often interchanged with them.

Modal verbs01.pdf