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A modal verb is a type of
verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
that contextually indicates a
modality Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the base (infinitive) form of another verb having
semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
content. In English, the modal verbs commonly used are ''can'', ''could'', ''may'', ''might'', ''shall'', ''should'', ''will'', ''would'', ''ought to'', ''used to'', ''dare'' and ''must.''


Function

A modal auxiliary verb gives information about the function of the main
verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
that it governs. Modals have a wide variety of communicative functions, but these functions can generally be related to a scale ranging from possibility ("may") to necessity ("must"), in terms of one of the following types of modality: *
epistemic modality Epistemic modality is a sub-type of linguistic modality that encompasses knowledge, belief, or credence in a proposition. Epistemic modality is exemplified by the English modals ''may'', ''might'', ''must''. However, it occurs cross-linguistical ...
, concerned with the theoretical ''possibility of propositions being true or not true'' (including likelihood and certainty) *
deontic modality Deontic modality ( abbreviated ) is a linguistic modality that indicates how the world ought to be according to certain norms, expectations, speaker desires, etc. In other words, a deontic expression indicates that the state of the world (where 'wor ...
, concerned with ''possibility and necessity in terms of freedom to act'' (including permission and duty) *
dynamic modality Dynamic modality is a linguistic modality that is the ability or requirement of the subject to do something. Dynamic modality is non- subjective in contrast to the similar deontic modality. Dynamic modality is expressed with " can" or "will Will ma ...
,A Short Overview of English Syntax (Rodney Huddleston)
section 6.5d
which may be distinguished from deontic modality in that, with dynamic modality, the conditioning factors are ''internal'' – the subject's own ability or willingness to act The following sentences illustrate epistemic and deontic uses of the English modal verb ''must'': *epistemic: ''You must be starving.'' ("I think it is almost a certainty that you are starving.") *deontic: ''You must leave now.'' ("You are required to leave now.") An ambiguous case is ''You must speak Spanish.'' The primary meaning would be the deontic meaning ("You are required to speak Spanish.") but this may be intended epistemically ("It is surely the case that you speak Spanish"). Epistemic modals can be analyzed as raising verbs, while deontic modals can be analyzed as control verbs. Epistemic usages of modals tend to develop from deontic usages. For example, the inferred certainty sense of English ''must'' developed after the strong obligation sense; the probabilistic sense of ''should'' developed after the weak obligation sense; and the possibility senses of ''may'' and ''can'' developed later than the permission or ability sense. Two typical sequences of evolution of modal meanings are: *internal mental ability → internal ability → root possibility (internal or external ability) → permission and epistemic possibility *obligation → probability


English

The following table lists the modal auxiliary verbs of standard English and various senses in which they are used: : The verbs in this list all have the following characteristics: :#They are
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...
s, which means they allow subject-auxiliary inversion and can take the negation ''not'', :#They convey functional meaning, :#They are defective insofar as they cannot be inflected, nor do they appear in non-finite form (i.e. not as infinitives, gerunds, or participles), :#They are nevertheless always
finite Finite is the opposite of infinite. It may refer to: * Finite number (disambiguation) * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marke ...
and thus appear as the root verb in their
clause In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb wit ...
, and :#They subcategorize for an infinitive, i.e. they take an infinitive as their complement The verbs/expressions ''dare'', ''ought to'', ''had better'', and ''need not'' behave like modal auxiliaries to a large extent, although they are not
productive Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
(in linguistics, the extent commonly or frequently used) in the role to the same extent as those listed here. Furthermore, there are numerous other verbs that can be viewed as modal verbs insofar as they clearly express modality in the same way that the verbs in this list do, e.g. ''appear'', ''have to'', ''seem'' etc. In the strict sense, though, these other verbs do not qualify as modal verbs in English because they do not allow subject-auxiliary inversion, nor do they allow negation with ''not''. Verbs such as ''be able to'' and ''be about to'' allow subject-auxiliary inversion and do not require ''do''-support in negatives but these are rarely classified as modal verbs because they inflect and are a modal construction involving the verb ''to be'' which itself is not a modal verb. If, however, one defines ''modal verb'' entirely in terms of meaning contribution, then these other verbs would also be modals and so the list here would have to be greatly expanded.


Defectiveness

In English, modals form a very distinctive class of verbs. They are auxiliary verbs as are ''be'', ''do'', and ''have'', but unlike those three verbs, they are grammatically '' defective''. For example, ''have'' → ''has'' vs. ''should'' → ''*shoulds'' and ''do'' → ''did'' vs. ''may'' → ''*mayed'', etc. In clauses that contain two or more verbs, any modal that is present always appears leftmost in the verb catena (chain). Thus, modal verbs are always
finite Finite is the opposite of infinite. It may refer to: * Finite number (disambiguation) * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marke ...
and, in terms of syntactic structure, the root of their containing clause. The following
dependency grammar Dependency grammar (DG) is a class of modern grammatical theories that are all based on the dependency relation (as opposed to the ''constituency relation'' of phrase structure) and that can be traced back primarily to the work of Lucien Tesni� ...
trees illustrate this point: :: The verb catenae are in blue. The modal auxiliary in both trees is the root of the entire sentence. The verb that is immediately subordinate to the modal is always an infinitive. The fact that modal auxiliaries in English are necessarily finite means that within the minimal finite clause that contains them, they can never be subordinate to another verb, e.g., ::a. Sam may have done his homework. ''The modal auxiliary may is the root of the clause.'' ::b. *Sam has may done his homework. ''Fails because the modal auxiliary may is not the root of the clause.'' ::a. Jim will be helped. ''The modal auxiliary will is the root of the clause.'' ::b. *Jim is will be helped. ''Fails because the modal auxiliary will is not the root of the clause.'' Such limits in form (tense, etc.) and syntactic distribution of this class of verbs are motivation of the designation ''defective''. Other constructions are frequently used for such a "missing" form in place of a modal, including "be able to" for ''can'', "have to" for ''must'', and "be going to" for ''shall'' and ''will'' (designating the future). It is of note that in this way, English modal auxiliaries are unlike modal verbs in other closely related languages; see below.


Do constructions

In English, main verbs but not modal verbs always require the auxiliary verb ''do'' to form negations and questions, and ''do'' can be used with main verbs to form emphatic affirmative statements. (Neither negations nor questions in early modern English used to require ''do''.) Since modal verbs are auxiliary verbs as is ''do'', in questions and negations they appear in the word order the same as ''do''. Some form of auxiliary "do" occurs in all West Germanic languages except Afrikaans. Its occurrence in the
Frisian languages The Frisian (, ) languages are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 500,000 Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the closest l ...
is restricted to Saterland Frisian, where it may be a loan from Low German. In both German and Dutch, the construction has been known since the Middle Ages and is common in dialects, but is considered ungrammatical in the modern standard language. The
Duden The Duden () is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH. The Duden is updated regularly with new editions appearing every four or five years. , ...
lists the following three potential uses of (''to do'') in modern German, with only the first being considered standard:


Comparison with other Germanic languages

The English modal verbs share many features and often
etymology Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...
with modal verbs in other Germanic languages. The table below lists some modal verbs with common roots in the West Germanic languages
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
,
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
,
Low Saxon Low Saxon, also known as West Low German ( nds, Nedersassisch, Nedersaksies; nl, Nedersaksisch) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of ...
, West Frisian and
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...
, the North Germanic languages Danish,
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
and Faroese, and the extinct East Germanic
Gothic language Gothic is an extinct East Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the '' Codex Argenteus'', a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizeable te ...
. This list comprises
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
s, which evolved from old Germanic modal auxiliaries. It does not attempt to be complete for any one of the modern languages, as some verbs have lost or gained modal character later in separate languages. (
English modal auxiliary verb The English modal verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality (properties such as possibility, obligation, etc.). They can be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participle ...
provides an exhaustive list of modal verbs in English, and German verb#Modal verbs provides a list for German, with translations. Dutch verbs#Irregular verbs gives conjugations for some Dutch modals.) Words in the same row of the table below share the same
etymological Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...
root. Because of
semantic drift Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from ...
, however, words in the same row may no longer be proper translations of each other. For instance, the English and German verbs ''will'' are completely different in meaning, and the German one has nothing to do with constructing the future tense. These words are
false friend In linguistics, a false friend is either of two words in different languages that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning. Examples include English ''embarrassed'' and Spanish ''embarazada'' 'pregnant'; English ''parents'' ...
s. In (modern) English, Afrikaans, Danish, and Swedish, the plural and singular forms are identical. For German, Dutch, Low Saxon, West Frisian, Faroese and Gothic, both a (not ''the'') plural and a singular form of the verb are shown. Forms within parentheses are obsolete, rare, and/or mainly dialectal in the modern languages. Etymological relatives (not translations) The English ''could'' is the preterite form of ''can''; ''should'' is the preterite of ''shall''; ''might'' is the preterite of ''may''; and ''must'' was originally the preterite form of ''mote''. (This is ignoring the use of "may" as a vestige of the
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality s ...
mood in English.) These verbs have acquired an independent, present tense meaning. The German verb ''möchten'' is sometimes taught as a vocabulary word and included in the list of modal verbs, but it is actually the past subjunctive form of ''mögen''. The English verbs ''dare'' and ''need'' have both a modal use (''he dare not do it''), and a non-modal use (''he doesn't dare to do it''). The Dutch, West Frisian, and Afrikaans verbs ''durven'', ''doarre'', and ''durf'' are not considered modals (but they are there, nevertheless) because their modal use has disappeared, but they have a non-modal use analogous with the English ''dare''. Some English modals consist of more than one word, such as "had better" and "would rather". Owing to their modal characteristics, modal verbs are among a very select group of verbs in Afrikaans that have a
preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple ...
form. Most verbs in Afrikaans only have a present and a perfect form. Some other English verbs express modality although they are not modal verbs because they are not auxiliaries, including ''want'', ''wish'', ''hope'', and ''like''. All of these differ from the modals in English (with the disputed exception of ought (to)) in that the associated main verb takes its long infinitive form with the particle ''to'' rather than its short form without ''to'', and in that they are fully conjugated.


Morphology and syntax

Germanic modal verbs are
preterite-present verb The Germanic language family is one of the language groups that resulted from the breakup of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). It in turn divided into North, West and East Germanic groups, and ultimately produced a large group of mediaeval and modern ...
s, which means that their present tense has the form of a vocalic preterite. This is the source of the vowel alternation between singular and plural in German, Dutch, and Low Saxon. Because of their preterite origins, modal verbs also lack the suffix (-s in modern English, -t in German, Dutch, Low Saxon and West Frisian, -r in the
North Germanic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also ...
, -þ in Gothic) that would normally mark the third person singular form. Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate, and thus Afrikaans non-modal verbs do not have a suffix either: The main verb that is modified by the modal verb is in the infinitive form and is ''not'' preceded by the word ''to'' (German: ''zu'', Low Saxon ''to'', Dutch and West Frisian ''te'', Afrikaans ''om te'',). There are verbs that may seem somewhat similar in meaning to modal verbs (e.g. ''like'', ''want''), but the construction with such verbs would be different: Similarly, in North Germanic languages, the infinitive marker (''at'' in Danish and Faroese, ''att'' in Swedish) is not used for main verbs with modal auxiliaries: ''Han kan arbejde'', ''han kan arbeta'', ''hann kann arbeiða'' (he can work). However, there also are some other constructions where the infinitive marker need not be employed, as in Swedish ''han försöker arbeta'' (he tries to work).


Less defective

In English, modal verbs are called
defective verb In linguistics, a defective verb is a verb that either lacks a conjugated form or entails incomplete conjugation, and thus cannot be conjugated for certain grammatical tenses, aspects, persons, genders, or moods that the majority of verbs or ...
s because of their incomplete conjugation: They have a narrower range of functions than ordinary verbs. For example, most have no infinitive or gerund. In many Germanic languages, the modal verbs may be used in more functions than in English. In German, for instance, modals can occur as non-finite verbs, which means they can be subordinate to other verbs in verb catenae; they need not appear as the clause root. In Swedish, some (but not all) modal verbs have infinitive forms. This for instance enables catenae containing several modal auxiliaries. The modal verbs are underlined in the following table. :::::::: The Swedish sentence translated word by word would yield the impossible "*he must can do it"; the same goes for the German one, except that German has a different word order in such clauses, yielding "*he must it do can".


In other languages


Hawaiian Pidgin

Hawaiian Pidgin Hawaiian Pidgin (alternately, Hawaiʻi Creole English or HCE, known locally as Pidgin) is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and 400,000 speak it as a se ...
is a
creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...
most of whose vocabulary, but not grammar, is drawn from English. As is generally the case with creole languages, it is an
isolating language An isolating language is a type of language with a morpheme per word ratio close to one, and with no inflectional morphology whatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating language ...
and modality is typically indicated by the use of invariant pre-verbal auxiliaries. The invariance of the modal auxiliaries to person, number, and tense makes them analogous to modal auxiliaries in English. . However, as in most creoles the main verbs are also invariant; the auxiliaries are distinguished by their use in combination with (followed by) a main verb. There are various preverbal modal auxiliaries: ''Kaen'' "can", ''laik'' "want to", ''gata'' "have got to", ''haeftu'' "have to", ''baeta'' "had better", ''sapostu'' "am/is/are supposed to". Unlike in Germanic languages, tense markers are used, albeit infrequently, before modals: ''Gon kaen kam'' "is going to be able to come". ''Waz'' "was" can indicate past tense before the future/volitional marker ''gon'' and the modal ''sapostu'': ''Ai waz gon lift weits'' "I was gonna lift weights"; ''Ai waz sapostu go'' "I was supposed to go".


Hawaiian

Hawaiian, like the
Polynesian languages The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austro ...
generally, is an
isolating language An isolating language is a type of language with a morpheme per word ratio close to one, and with no inflectional morphology whatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating language ...
, so its verbal grammar exclusively relies on unconjugated verbs. Thus, as with creoles, there is no real distinction between modal auxiliaries and lexically modal main verbs that are followed by another main verb. Hawaiian has an imperative indicated by ''e'' + verb (or in the negative by ''mai'' + verb). Some examples of the treatment of modality are as follows:Alexander, W. D., ''Introduction to Hawaiian Grammar'', Dover Publ., 2004 ''Pono'' conveys obligation/necessity as in ''He pono i nā kamali'i a pau e maka'ala'', "It's right for children all to beware", "All children should/must beware"; ability is conveyed by ''hiki'' as in ''Ua hiki i keia kamali'i ke heluhelu'' "Has enabled to this child to read", "This child can read".


French

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, like some other
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
, does not have a grammatically distinct class of modal auxiliary verbs; instead, it expresses modality using conjugated verbs followed by infinitives: for example, ''pouvoir'' "to be able" (''Je peux aller'', "I can go"), ''devoir'' "to have an obligation" (''Je dois aller'', "I must go"), and ''vouloir'' "to want" (''Je veux aller'' "I want to go").


Italian

Modal verbs in
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
form a distinct class (''verbi modali'' or ''verbi servili'').Verbi servili – Treccani
/ref> They can be easily recognized by the fact that they are the only group of verbs that does not have a fixed
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...
for forming the perfect, but they can inherit it from the verb they accompany – Italian can have two different auxiliary verbs for forming the perfect, ''avere'' ("to have"), and ''essere'' ("to be"). There are in total four modal verbs in Italian: ''potere'' ("can"), ''volere'' ("want"), ''dovere'' ("must"), ''sapere'' ("to be able to"). Modal verbs in Italian are the only group of verbs allowed to follow this particular behavior. When they do not accompany other verbs, they all use ''avere'' ("to have") as a helping verb for forming the perfect. For example, the helping verb for the perfect of ''potere'' ("can") is ''avere'' ("have"), as in ''ho potuto'' (lit. "I-have been-able","I could"); nevertheless, when used together with a verb that has as auxiliary ''essere'' ("be"), ''potere'' inherits the auxiliary of the second verb. For example: ''ho visitato il castello'' (lit. "I-have visited the castle") / ''ho potuto visitare il castello'' (lit. "I-have been-able to-visit the castle","I could visit the castle"); but ''sono scappato'' (lit. "I-am escaped", "I have escaped") / ''sono potuto scappare'' (lit. "I-am been-able to-escape", "I could escape"). Note that, like in other
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
, there is no distinction between an
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
and a
bare infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
in Italian, hence modal verbs are not the only group of verbs that accompanies an infinitive (where in English instead there would be the form with "to" – see for example ''Ho preferito scappare'' ("I have preferred to escape"). Thus, while in English a modal verb can be easily recognized by the sole presence of a bare infinitive, there is no easy way to distinguish the four traditional Italian modal verbs from other verbs, except the fact that the former are the only verbs that do not have a fixed auxiliary verb for the perfect. For this reason some grammars consider also the verbs ''osare'' ("to dare to"), ''preferire'' ("to refer to"), ''desiderare'' ("to desire to"), ''solere'' ("to use to") as modal verbs, despite these always use ''avere'' as auxiliary verb for the perfect.


Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
is an
isolating language An isolating language is a type of language with a morpheme per word ratio close to one, and with no inflectional morphology whatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating language ...
without inflections. As in English, modality can be indicated either lexically, with main verbs such as ''yào'' "want" followed by another main verb, or with auxiliary verbs. In Mandarin the auxiliary verbs have six properties that distinguish them from main verbs:Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thomson, ''Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar'', 1989. *They must co-occur with a verb (or an understood verb). *They cannot be accompanied by aspect markers. *They cannot be modified by intensifiers such as "very". *They cannot be nominalized (used in phrases meaning, for example, "one who can") *They cannot occur before the subject. *They cannot take a direct object. The complete list of modal auxiliary verbs consists of *three meaning "should", *four meaning "be able to", *two meaning "have permission to", *one meaning "dare", *one meaning "be willing to", *four meaning "must" or "ought to", and *one meaning "will" or "know how to".


Spanish

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, like French, uses fully conjugated verbs followed by infinitives. For example, ''poder'' "to be able" (''Puedo andar'', "I can walk"), ''deber'' "to have an obligation" (''Debo andar'', "I must walk"), and ''querer'' "to want" (''Quiero andar'' "I want to walk"). The correct use of ''andar'' in these examples would be reflexive. "''Puedo andar''" means "I can walk", "''Puedo irme''" means "I can leave" or "I can take myself off/away". The same applies to the other examples.


See also

*
English auxiliaries and contractions English auxiliary verbs are a small set of English verbs, which include the English modal verbs and a few others. Although definitions vary, as generally conceived an auxiliary lacks inherent semantic meaning but instead modifies the meaning of ...
* German modal particle *
Grammatical mood In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, a statement of ...
*
Modal logic Modal logic is a collection of formal systems developed to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a major role in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and natural language semantics. Modal logics extend ot ...


References


Modalverben


Bibliography



* Walter W. Skeat, The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology (1993), Wordsworth Editions Ltd.


External links


German Modal Verbs
A grammar lesson covering the German modal verbs
Modal Verbs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Modal Verb Linguistic modality Verb types Philosophy of language