Modal verbs

There is a special group of verb helpers called modal verbs.

Modal verbs include words like can, could may, might, shall, should, will, would, and must.

Let's find out which snippets from the last page used modal verbs.

The world might end.

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

“I guard this place from all who would harm it!”

The Graveyard Book(2010)

There are 5 kinds of meaning we create with modal verbs:

How likely an action is
How necessary an action is
How obliged someone is to perform an action
How inclined someone is to perform an action of their own free will
How able someone is to perform an action

Together, these meanings are called modes (modal → modes).

Try this

Read the next two snippets and ask yourself what the word 'could' means in each case.

Storm Boy could feel the shock and shudder of the line.

Storm Boy(1963)

She wore ill-fitting jeans and a T-shirt smeared with what could have been porridge.

Blood Junction(2002)

Hmm... that's odd. Both of those snippets use the same modal verb could, but did you notice that the mode (the type of meaning) changed!

In the first snippet, could communicates ability: Storm Boy was able to feel the shock and shudder of the line.

The second snippet also uses could, but this time it's being used to show likelihood: the smear was possibly porridge.

So, a modal verb can have different meanings depending on where you use it. That can be pretty confusing, but the good news is a) there are only a small number of these modal verbs and b) they will always express one of the five modes: likelihood, necessity, obligation, inclination, or ability.

Words get new meanings over time, so really old words can have a lot of different meanings. (According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'set' has 430 different meanings!) Often these meanings are closely related, because people begin to use a word in just a slightly different way. Can you see how the ability to do something and the possibility of something happening are similar?

You might have also recognised will in the list of modal verbs, which we used earlier to show future tense. Will (and the related form would) has a lot of uses, such as for showing certainty, intention, and desire (a facet of inclination). Can you see how those meanings might be related to the future?

The best way to learn about the different meanings of modal verbs is to try them out in different sentences and see what meanings you can get.

So let's do some rewriting. We're going to try rewriting the last two snippets with a different modal verb, would, and see what meanings we get.

Storm Boy would feel the shock and shudder of the line.

What does the word would tell us about Storm Boy's experience in this sentence? If you're not sure, try comparing it to the original snippet and think about what's different.

How about this one?

She wore ill-fitting jeans and a t-shirt smeared with what would have been porridge.

Now it's your turn. Choose a different modal verb with which you can rewrite the Storm Boy and porridge snippets. After you've written each sentence, think about how the modal verb changes the meaning. What mode does it create?

Here's the list of modal verbs to choose from: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would.

Rewrite the Storm Boy snippet using your chosen modal verb. What mode did you create? (Put your answer in brackets after your sentence).

Rewrite the porridge snippet using the same modal verb. Does it have the same meaning as when you used it in the Storm Boy snippet, or did it change slightly? (Again, write the mode in brackets).

Notice that modal verbs are quite abstract, meaning they are not actions you can see or imagine without additional words.

For example:

must—doesn't mean a lot by itself (must what?)
must stand—is more meaningful.

Put this observation in the back of your mind, because it will make it easier to understand secondary verbs, which are coming up shortly.

Verb groups