Published at February 17, 2025

Course on Modal Verbs - TOEIC® Preparation

TOP-Students™

In English, modals (or modal verbs) are a special category of verbs that allow expressing nuances of possibility, obligation, ability, permission, advice, etc.

They do not follow the usual conjugation:

No -s in the 3rd person singular (he can, she must, it will),
Negation and interrogation without the auxiliary do (e.g., I cannot go / Can I go?),
Followed by a base verb without "to" (e.g., I can swim, not I can to swim).

There are generally three main types of modals:

Core modals:
- These are verbs like can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would (to which dare and need can be added in certain forms).
- They are defective: they do not exist in all tenses (no canned, for example) and adhere to the properties described above (no s, negation without do, etc.).
Semi-modals:
- They express similar values (obligation, ability, future…), but partially behave like ordinary verbs.
- For example, have to, be able to, need (ordinary verb), dare (ordinary verb), ought to, used to, be going to, etc.
- Some can take s in the 3rd person (He has to go), be conjugated in the past (I had to go), or use the auxiliary do (Do you need to go?).
Modal expressions (periphrases):
- These are expressions (generally constructed with be or have) that fulfill modal functions (e.g., be allowed to, be about to, would rather, etc.).
- They are not "defective" like core modals and follow ordinary conjugation (He is allowed to go, They were about to leave, etc.).

Here is a summary in table form of modals. For each function, we have written a course, so feel free to read them.

FUNCTION	CORE	SEMI	EXPRESSIONS
Ability (= being able to do something)	can / can’t could / couldn’t	be able to	manage to succeed in know how to Be capable of
Permission (= having the right / authorization)	can / could / may / might		be allowed to Have the right to Have permission to
Obligation (= Strong obligation, necessity)	must / shall	have (got) to ought to	be required to be to + base verbale
Prohibition (= not having the right / it’s forbidden)	can’t / cannot mustn’t may not		not allowed to
Absence of obligation (= it’s not necessary)		don’t have to don’t need to needn’t	be not required to
Advice (= recommend / strongly suggest)	should / shouldn’t	ought to ought not to had better	You are advised to…
Suggestion / Proposal (= propose something)	could / shall		Why don’t we…?
Intention / Future (= Future, project, intention, plan)	will / shall	be going to	be about to
Probability / Uncertainty (= Degree of certainty / Possibility)	may / must / can’t	be likely to be bound to	be supposed to be like
Preference / Wish (= Want something, express a preference)	would		would like would rather would sooner