A Few More Modal Verbs October 9, 2013

Very often students are confused about modal auxiliary (“helping”) verbs used especially in conversational English.

Here is a continuation of a collection of modal verbs you can learn in PC TECH.  There are more that were presented in previous blogs :

Could helps you express ability in past time:  I could run very fast as a child, but now I can’t.

We can also use could for a polite request:  Could you help me?  In which direction is Times Square?

To offer an affirmative suggestion you could use could:  You could ask that police officer for directions.  With past time:  Too bad!  You could have watched the game on TV yesterday.

Could  can express 50% certainty of less:  Where’s Juan today?  He could be at home sick.  In past time:  He could have been at home sick last week.

In a negative manner, could is used to describe the impossible:  That couldn’t be correct!  In past time:  That could not have been accurate.

Like can, be able to expresses ability:  Yuki is able to speak five languages!

With past time:  They weren’t able to go shopping yesterday because they forgot their credit cards.

(There will be more of these modal verbs in upcoming blogs.)

           PC TECH: English Language School in New York City