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A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a likelihood, ability, permission, request, capacity, suggestion, order, obligation, necessity, possibility or advice. Modal verbs generally accompany the base (infinitive) form of another verb having semantic content. [ 1] In English, the modal verbs commonly used ...
The central English modal auxiliary verbs are can (with could ), may (with might ), shall (with should ), will (with would ), and must. A few other verbs are usually also classed as modals: ought, and (in certain uses) dare, and need. Use ( /jus/, rhyming with "loose") is sometimes classed so as well.
Modality (linguistics) In linguistics and philosophy, modality refers to the ways language can express various relationships to reality or truth. For instance, a modal expression may convey that something is likely, desirable, or permissible. Quintessential modal expressions include modal auxiliaries such as "could", "should", or "must"; modal ...
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. [ 1][ 2]: 181 [ 3] That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, a statement of fact, of desire, of command, etc.). The term is also used more broadly to describe ...
The modal auxiliary verbs contribute meaning chiefly via modality, although some of them (particularly will and sometimes shall) express future time reference. Their uses are detailed at English modal verbs, and tables summarizing their principal meaning contributions can be found in the articles Modal verb and Auxiliary verb.
Epistemic modality is a sub-type of linguistic modality that encompasses knowledge, belief, or credence in a proposition. Epistemic modality is exemplified by the English modals may, might, must. However, it occurs cross-linguistically, encoded in a wide variety of lexical items and grammatical structures. Epistemic modality has been studied ...
The modal verbs shall and will have been used in the past, and continue to be used, in a variety of meanings. [8] Although when used purely as future markers they are largely interchangeable (as will be discussed in the following sections), each of the two verbs also has certain specific uses in which it cannot be replaced by the other without ...
Modal words are words in a language that express modality, i.e., possibility, necessity, or contingency. [ 1] One kind of modal word is the modal verb ( should, can, might, and ought, as well as oblige, need, and require ). Other types of modal words in English include modal adjectives ( likely, probable, necessary ), modal adverbs ( probably ...