I need to make a video, one video that
explains the essence of the English language that is the key to
understanding and speaking. What could it be? I'm not leaving this room till I have the
answer however long it takes. I've got the answer: MODALITY! Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk so here's an exercise for you can try this at home.Take a verb a normal verb a verb such as GET ok. A nice common verb. I GET, YOU GET, HE GETS, SHE GETS etc, Now you can add something to the verb. Put a
phrase or noun after it. I'm going to add "a haircut". I get a haircut. I get a
haircut once a month, more or less. Now find your list of modal verbs. You don't
have list the modal verbs? You should. You can use mine. Here it is CAN, COULD, MAY,
MIGHT, MUST, SHALL, SHOULD, WILL, WOULD. Now look what happens when you put a modal
verb before your verb: I would get a haircut, I can get a haircut, I could get
a haircut, I may get a haircut, I might get a
haircut, I must get a haircut, I shall get a
haircut, I should get a haircut, I will get a haircut. Now let's try this with
WORK. I would work, I can work, I could work, I may work, I might work, I must work,
I shall work, I should work, I will work. Now these modal verbs change the mood of the sentence that's why they are called modal verbs and modal verbs can have
more than one meaning . If you're coming from a latin-based language such as Spanish or French or Portuguese (perhaps other language groups too but
I'm not an expert on on this) the key to learning these languages are the verbs. It's all about the conjugation of the
verbs and that's why speakers of these languages when they learn English they
are obsessed by the verbs. They have this verbs mindset. The verbs and focus a great
deal of effort learning English conjugations of irregular verbs WIN,
WON, WON. PUT, PUT, PUT it they paste it in the kitchen, on the ceiling over the bed, in the in
the toilet. Now when I studied Spanish the book of conjugationsis this
thick while in English the list of irregular verbs is a page or two. It is important to learn them of course but the key, the key that
unlocks the English language for you or the modal verbs by learning how each one
functions and studying the list that I will show you we're making enormous
difference to your mastery of the language. What I want you to do is to
learn all the modals and all their different functions. You've got that? very
important. First learn the list of rules for the modal verbs. By the way when we
are looking at the modals in detail I'll give you an example of each rule
but here are the rules to start off with: Modal verbs don't have infinitives CAN
not TO CAN; modal verbs don't have an S in the third person, HE CAN, not HE CANS;
modal verbs are like opposing magnets you can't put two together next to each
other in the same sentence. We'll look at that later; Modal verbs are followed by a
regular verb in the infinitive without TO; modal verbs generally have more than
one meaning. Now there are a few exceptions with what we call
semi-modal verbs these are NEED, DARE and OUGHT TO but that's a video for another day. I
will give an example with OUGHT TO later on them, Also remember that this
video is just a summary of the rules. If you need a deeper explanation we have
several videos, many videos on this channel which go into more detail for
each topic this includes pronunciation. There are contractions and weak forms
for most of these modals so let's go through each modal one at a time. Let's
start with CAN. CAN can be used for ability, permission and possibility let's have a
look at an example of each. ABILITY: "Did you know that I can eat 10 Donuts in 10
minutes." "I can count to 10 in Japanese" [foreign language] "Can you drive a car?" PERMISSION: "Are you going to Panama City?
Can I come with you?" "Can we see your Butterfly Collection?"
POSSIBILITY: "If we train hard we can win". "Taking drugs can kill you." Remember like
all modals there is no infinitive. instead used TO BE ABLE TO for example
don't say "I want can speak English." No no "I want to be able to speak English."
CAN is only used in the present for general past ability use COULD. "when I
was young I could run three marathons a day." "From my apartment window I could see the ocean on a clear day." but for having an ability and using that ability
use WAS/WERE ABLE TO and not COULD. This is a bit complicated so pay
attention. So you have an ability and you do the thing
then use WAS/WERE ABLE TO and not COULD let me give you an example "I broke my
leg but was able to get down the mountain." So
you had the ability to get down the mountain and and you did it so you must
use WAS ABLE TO. COULD in the past is just the ability but not the doing. I
thought I could get to the bottom of the mountain but when I tried it was
impossible. That's correct. "I could hear Jane, she was walking down
the corridor she was very angry." That's correct. The ability in the past "I
could hear her and I was able to explain the situation to her and she wasn't angry
anymore." Now it's not only the ability to explain but the doing it so we use WAS
ABLE TO. For possible ability in the future we use WILL BE ABLE TO not CAN. "If
I play the ukulele every day, by the end of the year I will be able to play it
pretty well." Never CAN here but for future Arrangements you can use CAN or
WILL BE ABLE TO both the same in this case "I hope I can meet you next week", "I
hope I'll be able to meet you next week" COULD so as we've already seen we can
use COULD for ability in the past. "When I was young I
could run a mile in four minutes." We use COULD for polite permission. "Could I
ask you a question?" you could also say "can I ask you a
question" COULD is maybe a little bit more polite but it's more less the same. For
possibility in the present or future you can use COULD. "That could be Jim at the
door, yeah I hear Jim." "Yes I could meet you tomorrow."
that's possible. For possibility in the past use COULD HAVE plus past participle
"I could have won the competition if I hadn't slipped on the ice and
fallen on my arse." Use COULD HAVE plus past participial to criticize someone for
not doing what they had the possibility of doing so, for example, "You're an hour
late you could have phoned me." For impossibility in the past use COULDN'T
HAVE + past participle "The book was perfect
he couldn't have written it any better." "I couldn't have got to here any earlier I
tried the best I could" MAY use MAY for polite permission "May I ask your advice?"
So you can use CAN you can use COULD and you can use MAY and MAY is the most
polite. "May I ask you a question? You can use MAY for probability "I may buy a bass
guitar." "I may go to London next week." For passed probability use MAY HAVE plus a
past participle "I think I may have upset Judy. i
said something stupid" MIGHT You can use MIGHT for polite permission
though this is quite rare. Usually we use CAN, COULD or MAY as we've just
discussed but you can use it. "Might I ask you a personal question?"
Not many people use it. It's not dead but, shall we say, it's on life support. however
sometimes I use it. But then again I'm a bit weird that's what people tell me in
the comments. but I kind of like it so, yes, why not? If you want to use it use
it bring it back to life. Might I ask your opinion on something? yeah it's ok.
use MIGHT for probability "I might be late" This is very common don't say
"it is possible that I'll be late" or "maybe I'll be late." Much better to
use MIGHT. in English we use MAY and MiGHT for probability. For past probability use
MIGHT HAVE plus the past participle. "I might have eaten the poison" and for past
speculation "She's not here no she might have forgotten." MUST use MUST for strong
obligation "I must work harder," "I must go to the dentist." I've got a toothache. Use MUST for a logical assumption. "What's that? Ah that must be the taxi." "I'm drunk. why's
that? Well it must be the beer." In the past used MUST HAVE plus a past
participle for a past assumption "it must have been
Perkins that robbed the grocery it couldn't have been anyone else. I never
trusted that Perkins" use MUSTN'T for- obligation "You mustn't speak to the
teacher like that." "You mustn't smoke in here." SHOULD SHOULD is used for advice
and recommendations and obligation. "you should brush your teeth every day." "You
should learn your modal verbs." The advice is less strong than MUST or HAVE TO
or HAVE GOT TO "You should try the tofu fricassée. It's really delicious." SHOULD
is also used for probability to talk about unexpected outcomes "it should take
about an hour to paint the kitchen." Use SHOULD HAVE + past participle to
express past regrets and to criticize past behaviour. "I should have told her
about my other wives." "I should have worn a black suit not the pink one for
the funeral." "You didn't get into medical school, you should have studied harder." In
the negative it's SHOULDN'T HAVE for example "I
shouldn't have got drunk last night." Just a point here about OUGHT TO which is a semi
modal verb which has a similar meaning to SHOULD when we are talking about
obligation it's a semi modal because it has an infinitive with TO for example.
"You ought to learn your modal verbs." similar to SHOULD we'll discuss the
differences in another video. SHALL and WILL Let's look at these
together because they've got a lot in common. You can use SHALL to talk about
the future in the first-person singular and plural that's I and WE for example "I
shall be back soon." That's correct however in spoken English especially
it's much, much more common to use WILL "I will be back soon" or you can use a
contraction "I'll be back soon" "I shall let you know" ok but
"I'll let you know." "I will let you know" is more common. "We will do it soon," "we shall
do it soon," "we'll do it soon." That's fine SHALL is still used in spoken English
and written English to make an offer with SHALL I and to make a suggestion
with SHALL WE let's look at some examples of that: "You look tired
shall I drive you home?" "You look thirsty shall I give you a glass of water?" "Shall
we go to the cinema tonight?" "Shall we go and get a cup of coffee?" You can make a promise or a threat with he/she/it
you are they shall. "You shall go to the ball, Cinderella." That's a promise. Any
student caught cheating shall be expelled this is a very formal usage
it's much more common in written English. WILL has several meanings it's not just
used for the future and one look at those in a minute. However for the future
according to the grammar books you use WILL just for the second and third
persons. "You will like this." "She will do it tomorrow." But as we've already seen, in
spoken English you just use WILL for all persons or use a contraction now here
are some other uses of WILL. To make a prediction, a subjective prediction, my
prediction. "I'm sure I will win the poker game this evening I have a feeling."
"It will take me an hour to finish this." To make a promise use WILL "I will do it
for you I promise." "I will always love you." Use WILL to talk about decisions made at
the moment of speaking "What! you don't have masala dosa? ok I'll have Hawaiian
pizza but without the ham... or the pineapple." use WILL to talk about repetitive actions in the present. "Everyday he sits in that chair and he will read a book for hours." Now
this is not a future tense it's a present tense we'll talk more
about that in a future video use WILL to make an offer. "I'll help you prepare for
your exams if you like." Use WON'T for refusals "I don't know what I said but
now she won't talk to me." "My car won't start." For more information about WON'T
for refusals check out the video up here. WOULD use WOULD for polite requests
and to say what we want "I would like a bottle of your finest champagne please."
"Tuesday is ok but I'd prefer Wednesday" "I'd like that one please." Use use WOULD for polite offers "I say would you like a piece of banana cake? I made it myself
you know." Use WOULD for permission with WOULD YOU MIND. "Would you mind if I took the afternoon off? I want to have tea with aunt Mildred." WOULD, is of course, used for conditionals. "if I had more time I would spend it with you but I'm a bit busy so p**s off.." Just joking there. Use WOULD as a past tense to talk abouactions in the past, repetitive actions in the past a bit like USED TO. "When I
was a student I would read a book every week. Not anymore."
Remember this is not a conditional it's a past tense. We do have a video on this
subject check it out up here. Use WOULD HAVE as a pass conditional, the
third conditional "If you had arrived earlier you would have met Perkins (I don't like Perkins)." "You wouldn't have gone to prison if you hadn't stolen the
statue."
