Imagine trying to speak without expressing possibility, permission,or necessity; it would be like painting without colour. That’s were the modal verb step in. These special helping verbs—can, could, ...

My favorite part of speech is the group of little guys known as modal auxiliaries or informally, modals. There are nine of them: (There are some other quasi-modals like had to, used to, and ought to, ...

There are three basic kinds of verbs plus many subclasses. Here we cover only the three basic types. Initially, verbs are divided into main verbs and auxiliary verbs. Then auxiliary verbs are divided ...

Most learners of English get to know soon enough that a verb is a word that describes an action, condition or experience, but not many are able to confidently distinguish main verbs from auxiliary ...

Here s a set of basic but tough grammar questions posted in Jose Carillo s English Forum by an Iran-based member who goes by the cryptic username r_a: What are the differences between a helping verb, ...

- an auxiliary verb (such as `can' or `will') that is used to express modality ...

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea minima culpa: Michael Bulley (Letters, 10 May) is right to correct me – Latin does have the modal verbs he names, which cover possibility (possum), permission (licet) and ...