Modal verbs
A modal verb is tested from two sides. In reading it is a word to compare with care: the text says something can happen, and a statement built from the same words may quietly say that it happens.
In Language in Use the mistake is one of form. The verb after a modal is the bare one, so a gap
with a printed to refuses must, and in editing a do or a to wedged in after a modal is the
word to strike out.
The gap that sent you here
“Every member ___ to bring the tool back within a week.” Which word does not fit here?
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.Three of the four words drag a to along behind them, and only the fourth will not tolerate it. That
is the first thing to know about a modal verb: it takes no -s itself in the third person, and the
verb to its right stands in the form the dictionary prints, with no to, no -s, no -ing.
That is a modal in a gap you fill. In a text you only have to read, the mistake with it is a different one.
The line where the mark is lost
Two steps. Click the sentence in the text that your answer rests on, then mark the statement true or false.
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.The tool library on Meadow Street lends drills, ladders and sewing machines to anyone with a local address. It was set up in 2016 by two neighbours who were tired of buying machines they needed twice a year. Members pay twenty euros a year, and school pupils borrow anything at no cost. Nothing may be kept for longer than a week, because the waiting lists are long. A volunteer checks every item when it comes back, and small repairs are done on the spot. Some of the heavier machines must be collected by car, since the library has no delivery service. "People often tell us they would rather borrow than own," says Nina Fehr, who runs the Saturday shift. The workshop in the back room is open on Saturdays, and beginners can be shown how to use a tool before they take it home. Last winter the roof leaked, and the collection had to be moved into a garage for a month. The founders think the workshop could open on weekday evenings as well, if enough volunteers sign up. Membership doubled in 2023, and the two neighbours are now looking for a bigger room. Anyone who brings a tool back late is asked to pay one euro a day.
Statement
Beginners are shown how to use a tool before they take it home.
That difference is the whole of the modal verb in the reading part. can, may, might, could
place a sentence on a scale of how likely it is and do not say whether it happened. Skip a word like
that with your eyes and you read the text as a report of events, and a statement built from the same
words goes through as true.
A modal in the text does not make the answer false, though. A statement that keeps the possibility,
has the chance to or it is possible to, is true. The modal says where to compare, not what to tick.
The rule and a table
A modal verb is an auxiliary, that is, a word that describes nothing by itself and stands beside an ordinary verb to say whether the action is obligatory, possible or unlikely. The verb to the right carries the action, the modal carries the attitude towards it.
must and should each work at two jobs, the strength of a requirement and the speaker's
confidence, and the same must can do either: only the sense of the phrase tells them apart.
Test the rule on another sentence from the same text.
Click the one word of the statement that the passage contradicts.
Above exam levelHarder than the exam on purpose. A miss here is not a gap in what you know.One word. Nothing marked yet.
The founders think the workshop could open on weekday evenings as well, if enough volunteers sign up.
Statement
Both items came down to one move: see the modal in front of the verb and do not read on as though it were not there. Language in Use asks about the same word from the other side: there you put it in.
The same modal in Language in Use
Start with the form: three modals, and what stands to their right when voice and tense change.
| must | can | might | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain form after the modal | must go | might go | |
| Passive, with the same modal | must be taken | can be taken | |
| A guess about the past | can't have gone | might have gone |
Note the middle cell of the last row. A guess about the past takes can only with a negative or in
a question, can't have gone, who can have taken it?; a positive guess is built with must, might or could. That row gets its own
section below.
Editing checks the same form from the other side: the line is already written, and you decide whether every word in it may stand there.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.- 00
- 01
- 02
- 03
So far every modal spoke about the present or the future. The table's last row looked back.
A modal about the past
have plus the third form (gone, taken, booked) after a modal leaves the modal as it is and
moves the judgement into the past: whether something happened, or whether it should have.
| Form | What the speaker says | Example |
|---|---|---|
| must have | certain it happened | She must have taken the ladder already |
| can't have / couldn't have | certain it did not happen | He can't have seen the notice |
| may / might / could have | it possibly happened | The parcel might have gone to the old address |
| should have | it was the right thing, not done | We should have booked the sander earlier |
| needn't have | it was done, and was not necessary | You needn't have cleaned the drill |
Two lines cost marks. The opposite of must have is can't have, never mustn't have. And
needn't have cleaned says the cleaning happened for nothing, while didn't need to clean only says
nobody had to, and usually that nobody did.
“We needn't have booked the sander a week ahead.” What happened?
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.The next sentence looks back as well, and before it stands a fact the speaker draws a conclusion from.
The sander hung on its hook all weekend. “Ruth can't have borrowed it on Saturday.” What does the second sentence say?
Below exam levelEasier than the exam: a warm-up for the rule before exam-style items.Here the modal had a form to use. In the next gap it has none.
Where no modal can be used
The city has promised a grant, and from next spring every school in the district will ___ book a machine online.
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.Where a modal has no form, a phrase stands in: be able to for ability, have to for obligation,
be allowed to for permission, after will, after have or as an -ing. Below they come back in a
text that has to be read whole.
Once more in the reading part, with no prompt
In the task with three people, each statement goes to one person, and what tells them apart are circumstances expressed by these phrases.
A · Ruth
Ruth borrowed a floor sander for the first time in 2018. Back then the library closed at four, so she had to take a whole day off work to collect it. These days she picks tools up on her way home from the office. She has never needed the sewing machines, because she has had her own for years.
B · Tomas
Tomas is fifteen. He was allowed to borrow the small tools for a school project without a parent, because the pupil card covers them. For the heavy machines the rule is different, and there he still needs an adult with him. Last spring his mother had to leave work early to come with him for the sander.
C · Ines
Ines runs a repair café two streets away. She could not find anywhere in the district that lent out sewing machines until this library opened. She now brings her own machines in on Saturdays and lets visitors work on them, though children may only use them with an adult beside them. She cannot pick up the heavy tools herself, as she has no car, so a neighbour fetches them for her.
A text can answer more than one question. Do not spread your letters evenly.
00was once unable to collect a tool without losing a day of work
01did not need an adult present for part of the collection
02had no local place to borrow a sewing machine before this library opened
03is now able to pick things up without changing their plans
The letter A appears twice, and that is not a fault: in this task a person may be chosen any number of times. What separates the statements is the tense of the phrase: the rule back then, or possible now.
What to take away
| What a modal does | rates the action for confidence or obligation, not whether it took place |
| The form to its right | always the plain one: can go, must be, might have gone |
| Never occurs | cans, must going, should to go, must do go, two modals in a row |
| Past and future | had to, was allowed to, will be able to |
| Looking back | must have, can't have, might have, should have, needn't have |
| The pair to learn | mustn't is a ban, needn't is a release |
| Where it decides marks | reading: a possibility against a fact; editing: a do or to after it |
Three places where this topic earns or costs marks:
True / false: where a modal in the text decides whether the statement says more than the text Open gap-fill: where a modal will not go into a gap with to printed after it Editing: where a do or a to right after a modal is the word to strike outWas this article helpful?