Tag: Basic

Modals and obligation

In the diagram below we can see that both should and must can be used to talk about present or future obligations. Again, when we want to talk about obligations in other tenses we can use other verbs which aren’t modals. The most common one is have to. Use have to in the past and with would, will or other modals (remember we never use two modals together). Review the examples below the diagram and tray to write some examples yourself. Then try to used have to for obligations in other tenses.

Present
He should wait before entering the plane. (not a strong obligation)
They must sit during the takeoff and landing. (strong obligation)

Future
You should get a taxi from the airport after you disembark.
She must file the report before 8pm tomorrow evening.

Past
They had to divert due to weather conditions. (strong obligation)
We had to renew our medical licence before returning to the line. (strong obligation)

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Modals and prohibition

From the diagram, we can see that to talk about prohibition there are five options, depending on the situation. ‘Mustn’t’ is the strongest structure, while ‘shouldn’t’ is the weakest. ‘Can’t’ and ‘may not’ relate to medium levels of prohibition. Look at the diagram and then look at the examples below for some more information.

Present
Passengers can’t enter the cockpit during flights.
You may not put your bag under the seat in a beside and emergency exit.
You shouldn’t drink your own alcohol on board.
You mustn’t smoke on board.

Future
We can’t have a day off next Monday.
They may not land after 2am, the airport will be closed.
He shouldn’t perform the landing for the next flight, it’s not his turn.
They mustn’t switch seats after the planes takes off.

Reported speech
He told us we couldn’t switch our flight.

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Time references for modal verbs

Adding to what we saw previously, we look at the time reference for our modal verbs in each of their uses. Looking at our diagram below, we can see that to talk about ability in the past we use ‘could’ and in the present we use ‘can’.

Ability in the future?

Then how do we talk about ability in the future? Well, in the future we use ‘be able to’.

eg. By next year I’ll be able to fly three single engine aircraft.

‘Be able to’ isn’t a modal verb so it isn’t in our list, but we can use it with a similar meaning to a modal verb with time references unavailable to our modal verbs (i.e. not just future, but also with present perfect, after ‘would’ etc…).

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Modals and probability

We previously said that all modals express a level of probability. This week we look at what that level of probability is related to each of our modal verbs. Check out the diagram below for information and try to make your own examples with each.

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