José Aldinho

Modal verbs and their meaning

What are

verbs?

WORD OR  GROUP OF WORDS

A physical action A mental actionA state of being

VERBS

e.g., to swim, to write, to climb

e.g., to think, to guess, to consider

e.g., to be, to exist, to appear

A modal verb is a type of auxiliary verb used to express ideas such as: Ability Possibility Permission Obligation.

Some characteristics of modal verbs:

They give additional information about the function of the main verb that follows it.

They never change their form.

You can't add "s", "ed", "ing"...

They are always followed by an infinitive without "to"

Modal verbs

MayMightWill

Could

WouldShouldMust

Can

Can

Expressing

Ability

I can swim.

PermissionPossibility

Can I use your phone please?

Smoking can cause cancer.

Can't (Cannot)

I can't play the guitar

I can't sing

I can't call you at the moment

StructureWe use can / can't + verb (without  to).Can (ability, possibility): positive and negate forms

Person positive / negative

+ verb

I Can / can't swim. You Can / can't read. He Can / can't ski. She Can / can't draw. It Can / can't speak. We Can / can't drive. They Can / can't Sing.

Be careful!

Don't make these common mistakes:

I can to come tomorrow.I can come tomorrow.I can speaking Italian.I can speak Italian.He cans run 10 kilometres.He can run 10 kilometres.He don't can play football.He can't play football.