periwork.com

Obligation, permission, possibility or will are the various aspects of what one called the action modality.

Modaux are five : can, may, must will, shall.

Therefore there are five past modaux auxiliaries : could, might, would, should.

I. THE WILL

A. Will

Will is mot only a futur form. It could also express the will.

It could be :

A hard, strong, will. " I will have my way in this matter ! ".
A politeness form. " Will you give me a hand " or " Will you pass me the salt. "
A futur hapening or situation. " The plate is very hot, if you touch it, you will burn yourself. "

B. Would

Would express :

The will in a past or conditional sentence. " The car just wouldn’t start. ".
A politenes form more distant. " Would you be so kind as to take your boots off my desk ? ".
A categorical refusal in the past. " They just would not give up ".
A predictable hapening in the past. " He would often ligh up a cigarette after dinner ".

II. THE CAPACITY

Thereare three xays to express it :

Physical or intellectual possibilities express by can or be able to.
Permission express by may or be allowed to.
Contengency express by may, migth be likely to.

A. Can

In order to express :

Physical capacity. " He can lift hundred pounds all by himself ."
A capacity due to a specific situation. " We can go now, the road has been cleaned ".
An intellectual capacity. " He can speak seven foreign languages ".
Can express also the incapacity : " You can’t come in, it’s for members only ".
Or a contengency wich appears impossible : " Mary can’t have stolen the papers, she was here all the nigth. ".

B. Could

Could express a virtual capacity in the past. " Guests could see the Mont Blanc from their hostel. ".

C. Be able to

Be able to express an effective capacity. " The sprinters were able to complete the race in under ten seconds. ".

III. PERMISSION

A. May

May is the current way to express permission. " mother, may i stay and watch TV ? "

B. Might

Might express the permission in the past. " Mom say we might stay up all the nigth if we wanted to. "

C. Be allowed

Be allowed is an impersonnal form. " Soldiers were allowed to go home only the christmas celebrations. "

IV. CONTENGENCY

A. May

It often express idea of a state or action in present, past, or futur which seem possible. " He may have left for the Bahamas by now ".

B. Might

In order to exprees an eventuality less probable. " They might show up after all. Let’s wait a little longer ".

C. Be likely to

A probable eventuality. " They’re likely to quit if we don’t raise wages soon. "

D. Be boud to / Be sure to

An almost certain contengency." She’s boud to think we did it on purpose. "

V. Necessity or obligation

A. Must or to have to ?

Necessity can have for origin either the speaker, we use " must " , " You must stop smoking so much ! " .

Or a state of fact, we use " To have to " or " Be to ", " You have to stop smoking before entering the theatre "

B. Be to

To express :

An obligation. " You girls are to clean your rooms up before I get back ! ".
An immediate prohibition. " You’re not to go out till they’re cleazn. ".
A project. " We have to leave South America at the end of the month. ".

C. Obligation or necessity ?

Necessity is translated on an action plane for obligation and on the learning plane for probability.
Obligation :" They must realize that we’re all in this thing together ."
Probability : " They must have broken in trough this window. "

D. Negation

To annul an obligation, we use " not have to " or " needn’t ". " We dont’ have to go that boring meeting after all. ".

To express a prohibition , we use " must not ". " You must not take the dog out without its leash ".

VI. SHOULD

* Conditional obligation :

Like : " They should pay more atention to their homework ."

* Conditional probability :

For example : " The plane should land any minute now. "

IF YOU WANT TO DO SOME EXERCISES ABOUT THIS GRAMMAR POINT,

CLOSE THIS APPLICATION, GO TO "DEMARRER", "PROGRAMMES", "GRAMSTER"