In English, there are many ways to express the mood or feeling of the speakers or writers by adding adjective or adverb in the sentence. However, to represent the mood of main verb, you can use modal verbs which modify additional information for the main verb. In other words, they help to incorporate or add the level of necessity (must = obligation, requirement, no choice); (should = recommendation); (can/could = it is possible); and (may/might = option, choice). Usage of modal verb is not so difficult, but there are some main points which you have to comprehend clearly because sometimes they may be confusing for some students.
The common error of using modal verbs is that users sometimes use modal verbs as nomal verbs. It means that they assign -s, -es ending to modal verb corresponding to the subject in the sentence, such as "he wills do it" or "she cans sing well". In these cases, readers may understand the whole meaning transmitted but it makes the composer degraded due to the ridiculous error. To avoid this kind of error, we have to remember that all modal verbs are used only as a uniform appearance with all kind of subjects. Modals appear with verbs, but are not really considered verbs because they never take -ed, -ing, or -s endings.
another common errors of using modal verbs is that some students assign -s, -es endings or infinitive verbs plus -ing ending to main verbs accompanying with modals:
"he will goes"
"she will bringing the book"
"she should writes every day"
"his son could caught a ball"
To correct these errors, we have to transform main verbs into their base form or bare infinitive without "to" before the verb.
Finally, sentences using modal verbs do not use auxiliary verbs, such as "do" or "do not", to make a negative sentence or question sentence. Because modal verbs actually are auxiliary verbs and to make question sentence with modal verb is simply to move the modal in front of the sentence, or add "not" right after modal to make a negative sentence. Remember to prevent these following faults:
"we don't will go to the party tomorrow"
"do you may help me?"
The mentioned errors above are the most common errors which can be made easily if we lacks attention with using modal verbs. It is very essential that modal verbs are a type of auxiliary verb used to indicate modality and different from normal verbs.
**Exercise to practise:
1. Ted's flight from Amsterdam took more than 11 hours. He.....................be exhausted after such a long flight. He ....................prefer to stay in tonight and get some rest.
2. If you want to get a better feeling for how the city is laid out, you................walk downtown and explore the waterfront.
3. Hiking the trail to the peak ..................be dangerous if you are not well prepared for dramatic weather changes. You ...................research the route a little more before you attempt the ascent.
4. When you have a small child in the house, you ..................leave small objects lying around. Such objects .....................be swallowed, causing serious injury or even death.
5. Dave:...............you hold your breath for more than a minute? Nathan: No, I can't.
6. Jenny's engagement ring is enormous! It ..............have cost a fortune.
7. Please make sure to water my plants while I am gone. If they don't get enough water, they .............die
8. I ................speak Arabic fluently when I was a child and we lived in Egypt. But after we moved back to Canada, I had very little exposure to the language and forgot almost everything I knew as a child. Now, I ..................just say a few things in the language.
9. The book is optional. My professor said we ..............read it if we needed extra credit. But we ..................read it if we don't want to.
10. Leo: Where is the spatula? It ...................be in this drawer but it's not here.Nancy: I just did a load of dishes last night and they're still in the dish washer. It ...............be in there. That's the only other place it ...............be
11. You .................take your umbrella along with you today. The weatherman on the news said there's a storm north of here and it................rain later on this afternoon.
12. ................we pull over at the next rest stop? I really ................. use the bathroom and I don't know if I..............hold it until we get to Chicago.
13. Oh no! Frank's wallet is lying on the coffee table. He .................have left it here last night.
14. Ned:.................I borrow your lighter for a minute?Stephen: Sure, no problem. Actually, you ................keep it if you want to. I've given up smoking.
15. I ..............believe she said that to Megan! She ...........insult her cooking in front of everyone at the party last night. She ...................have just said she was full or had some salad if she didn't like the meal.
16. Do you ..............chew with your mouth open like that? Geez, it's making me sick watching you eat that piece of pizza.
17. Mrs. Scarlett's body was found in the lounge just moments ago, and it's still warm! Nobody has left the mansion this evening, so the killer..............be someone in this room. It ..............be any one of us!!!
18. Ted: I don't know why Denise starting crying when I mentioned the wedding.Pamela: It ................have been what you said about her brother. Or, perhaps she is just nervous. After all, the big day is tomorrow.
19................you always say the first thing that pops into your head? ..............you think once in awhile before you speak?
19...................you always say the first thing that pops into your head? .................you think once in awhile before you speak?
20. I was reading the book last night before I went to bed. I never took it out of this room. It .............be lying around here somewhere. Where .............it be? be swallowed, causing serious injury or even death.
answers:
1. Might, might2. Can3. Might , should4. Should not , could5. Can6. Must7. Could 8. Could , can9. Have to, do not have to10. Must, must ,could11. Should , might12. Can, have to , can13. Must14. Could, can15. Can’t , shouldn’t, should16. Have to17. Must, could18. Might19. Must, couldn’t20. Must, could
