Modal Verbs
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 428.
Grammar
1. Modal Verbs Expressing Probability
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3 May can be used to express although clauses:
She may be the boss, butthat is no excuse for shouting like that.
4 May/might as well
This describes the only thing left to do, something which the speaker is not
enthusiastic about.
Nobody else is going to turn up now for the lesson, so you may as wellgo home.
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| 2. Modal Verbs Expressing Ability |
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| 3. Modal Verbs Expressing Advice/Mild Obligation |
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| Note We use should / ought to + have + past participleto talk about an obligation in the past. We often indicate some criticism or regret: He should / ought to have askedme before he took my bike. (I'm annoyed) We should / ought to have takena taxi when it rained. (I'm sorry we didn't) |
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| 4. Modal Verbs Expressing Obligation |
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| 4. We use mustn'tto say that something is NOT ALLOWED and needn't (or don't need to) or don't have toto say that something is NOT NECESSARY: You mustn'twalk on the grass here. You mustn'tput anything on the shelves until the glue has set hard. They proved that watching a chess match needn'tbe boring. We needn'tgo into details now, but we seem to agree on the general principles. To give permission not to do something we can use either needn't or don't need to:You needn't/ don't need to cut the grass, I'll do it later. To talk about a general necessity, we prefer don't need to: You don't need to beover 18 to get into a disco. |
| 5. When we say that it was not necessary to do something in the past, and it wasn't done, we use didn't need toordidn't have to.To show that we think something that was done was not, in fact, necessary we use need not have: Chris and June phoned to say that they couldn't come to eat, so I didn't need/have to cookdinner. (= I didn't cook the dinner) I needn't have cooked dinner. Just as it was ready, Chris and June phoned to say that they couldn't come to eat. (= I did cook the dinner) |
| 5. Modal Verbs Expressing Permission |
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| 6. Modal Verbs Expressing Willingness and Refusal |
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| 7. Modal Verbs Expressing Habit |
| 1.Wecan use will(for the present) and would(for the past) to talk about characteristic behaviour or habits, or about things that are or were always true: Every day Dan willcome home from work and turn on the TV. During the war, people wouldeat all kinds of things that we don't eat now. A baby willrecognise its mother's voice soon after it is born. Early passenger planes wouldn'thold more than 30 passengers. |
| 2. We don't use wouldin this way to talk about a particular occasion in the past. Compare: Each time I gave him a problem he would solveit for me. and Last night I gave him a problem and he solvedit for me. {not ...he would solve it...) |
| 3. In speech, we can stress willor wouldto criticise people's characteristic behaviour or habits: She will leave all the lights on in the house when she goes out. I was happy when Sam left. He would talk about people behind their backs. When we use stressed wouldin this way, we can also use it to talk about a particular occasion in the past. We suggest that what happened was predictable because it was typical of a person's behaviour: 'Jackie says she can't help because she's got a lot of work on.' 'Well she would say that she always uses that excuse.' |
| 4. If we want to talk about things that happened repeatedly in the past, but don't happen now, we can use wouldor used to + infinitive. Used tois more common in informal English: We would / used tolend him money when he was unemployed. Tim would / used tovisit his parents every other weekend. We use used tobut not wouldwhen we talk about past states that have changed: The factory used tobe in the city centre. I used tosmoke heavily when I was at university. When we use wouldwe need to mention a specific time or set of occasions. Compare: We used toplay in the garden, {not We would play...) Whenever we went to my Uncle Frank's house, we would / used toplay in the garden. |
| 5. We don't use either used toor wouldwhen we say exactly how many times something happened, how long something took, or that something happened at a particular time: We visitedSwitzerland four times during the 1970s. She wenton holiday to the Bahamas last week. |
| 8. Modal Verbs Expressing Request |
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(from: Martin Hewings. English Grammar in Use Advanced. Cambridge University Press, 7th ed.; Liz and John Soars. New Headway Upper-intermediate. The new edition. Student's Book. Oxford University Press, 2009; Michael Vince. Advanced Language Practice. Macmillan, 2007)
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| Exercise 3. Translate the following sentences, using active vocabulary. | | | Exercise 1. Underline the correct word or phrase in each sentence. |