Saturday, December 31, 2011

Modal verbs.....

Assalamualaikum,

We always come across words like must, can/could, may/might, will/would, shall and should right?  Yes, they are called modal verbs. They are different from other verbs in many ways.
  1. We do not use modal verbs alone
A modal verb goes before another verb (except in short answers):

You must go     Leyla can dance     It might snow

The second verb is always in the infinitive form, without any past tense and without any -ing, -s or -ed ending. We cannot say xhe must workedx, xshe must washingx or xshe must dancesx

2. Modal verbs has no -ing, -s or -ed endings
Unlike other verbs, modal verbs never change their form. We cannot say xyou are musting gox or "Emmet cans dancex  

3. Modal verbs have adifferent negative form
We cannot make negatives with don't, doesn't or didn't. To make a negative, put not or n't after the modal verb:
Waalique must not go (formal) or Waalique musn't go (informal)
With can, we join not to make one word : cannot

4. Modal verbs have a different question form
We cannot make questions with do, does or did.
To make a question, change the word order:
Azam must go ----------> Must Azam go?
Fida can dance----------> Can Fida dance?

5. Most modal verbs have no past tense
Except for can (past tense could) and will (past tense would), modal verbs do not have a past tense.











3 comments:

  1. my students always make mistake when using modals no matter how many times I reminded them that after modals, the verbs should be base word..

    ReplyDelete
  2. i always learn grammar, so that i could do correction on my grammar's mistakes! :) thanks for these good reminders!

    ReplyDelete

Salam, thank you very much for speaking your mind..........

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