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That can indeed hinder. You can, if you are allowed. She can really sing. could: That could happen soon. – He could swim when he was young. may: That may be a problem. May I stay? – might: The weather might improve. Might I help you? – must: It must be hot outside. Sam must go to school. – shall: This shall not be viewed kindly. You ...
The English modal auxiliary verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality, properties such as possibility and obligation. [a] They can most easily be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participles or plain forms [b]) and by their lack of the ending ‑(e)s for the third-person singular.
The sentence in (1) might be spoken by someone who has decided that all of the relevant facts in a particular murder investigation point to the conclusion that Agatha was the murderer, even though it may or may not actually be the case. The 'must' in this sentence thus expresses epistemic modality: "'for all we know', Agatha must be the ...
Occasionally, with a first person subject, would is replaced with should. In the main clause, the auxiliary would can be replaced by could or might, as described for the second conditional. If only one of the two clauses has past reference, a mixed conditional pattern (see below) is used.
The modals can and may change to their preterite forms could and might : "We may attend." → She told us that they might attend. Verb forms not covered by any of the rules above (verbs already in the past perfect, or formed with would or other modals not having a preterite equivalent) do not change. Application of the rules above is not ...
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In linguistics, the modal case (abbreviated MOD) is a grammatical case used to express ability, intention, necessity, obligation, permission, possibility, etc. It takes the place of English modal verbs such as can, could, would, might, may.
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