Final Set of Modal Verbs October 11, 2013

Modal auxiliary (“helping”) verbs are very important to learn,  especially for use in conversational English.

Here is the final part of a list of modal verbs you can learn in PC TECH.  You can find the other  lists in previous blogs :

Would helps you make a polite request:  Would you help me with my homework please?

We can also use would – often with rather – when we want to express preference:  I would rather have tea.  I would like to live in Antarctica.

To refer to a repeated past activity, we can use would:  When I was a teenager, I would often go to the mall to meet my friends.

Would  (with like) is a polite way to express want:  I would (or I’d) like some pepper on my pizza, please.

Used to express past time, would describes a wish or desire that was unfulfilled:  I would have bought an umbrella, but they were so expensive.

Used to can express repeated past action; often it can be interchanged with would:  I used to go fishing with my father when I was a child.  I would often go fishing….

Shall is infrequently used in American English conversation; it can seem rather formal:  Shall I close the door?

PC TECH: English Language School in New York City