Modal Verbs

I’ve been thinking about writing this article for quite some time now and, at some point, I even decided to experiment and spend a day at work listening to people speak English only just to try and catch as many modal verbs as possible. I advise you to do the same – if you don’t live or work in an English speaking environment try watching a movie or listen to the BBC radio. It’s a lot of fun and you will be surprised of how we just can’t manage without modal verbs and how they are, in fact, the most common verbs in the English language. But what are they? Modal verb is a kind of helping word and in that context helping also means auxiliary. They aren’t only common in English but also many other languages such as German.

It’s easy to recognise auxiliary verbs – they don’t really stand on their own. In a sentence I don’t like fish contraction do not does not stand on its own – it is only there to negate the actual main verb of the sentence – like.  We certainly can’t just say I don’t fish… Similarly we say Do tell! and even though we only mean tell! really, do is there to emphasise the primary verb tell.  We can find auxiliary verbs in many other examples: did in Past Simple Tense, have and had in Present Perfect and Past Perfect Tense,  be in Present progressive, was/were in past progressive etc.

There are so called nice properties that distinguish auxiliary verbs from other verbs:

1. Auxiliaries alone can be negated (He doesn’t drive, I wouldn’t go to America)

2. Auxiliaries alone can be inverted (Are we going? Is she watching TV?)

3. Auxiliaries alone exhibit the ability to allow a following verb phrase to be deleted (Will they win the match? I think they might but my dad says they can’t)

4. Auxiliaries alone can be emphasised (She does speak English)

Modal verb is a special kind of an auxiliary verb that can be used to modify the modality of a sentence. Modal verbs have only finite (tensed) forms and don’t have participles or infinitives and they never take the inflection –s in the third person singular. Modality here refers to the attitude to the action indicated by a verb that can be used to describe ideas such as intention, obligation, necessity, desirability or probability.

We have following modal verbs in English: shall, should, will, would, may, might, can, could, must plus some linguist also categorise following as modal verbs: ought to, be going to, have to, used to. However, I tend to call them non-modal constructions that have a modal function.

There’s different ways in which modal verbs can function:

1. Epistemic (belief, assumption, probability) I could write you an email.

2. Deontic (obligation or command) You must leave now.

3. Dynamic (action or ability) I can swim.

Modal verbs are certainly very different to all the normal verbs and non-native speakers of English often have to be careful when using them. For instance saying you can go now isn’t at all polite, it in fact means more or the less I have power over you and I’m now going to release you. Get lost. It’s much better to grant permission saying you may go now. In standard English usage (there might be regional differences and variations such as in Southern American English) it is incorrect to follow one modal with another for the simple reason that modal must be followed by an infinitive and doesn’t have an infinitive form itself. Modal verb can be, however, combined with non-modal constructions that has a modal function such as have to. Therefore might have to is correct whereas might must isn’t even though have to and must carry the same meaning.