Modal Verbs

Unlike other verbs, modal verbs do not denote actions or processes or states, but only show the attitude of the speaker towards the action or process or state.

There are 12 modal verbs and their equivalents in English: can, may, must, should, ought to, shall, will, would, need, dare, to be to, to have to.

Can expresses:

1. physical and mental ability: Mary can speak English very well. He can drive a car.

2. possibility: You can hardly blame him for it. In old days a man could be hanged for a small crime. The sea can be rough.

3. permission: Can we go home?

4. prohibition: You can’t cross the street here.

5. request: Can you hold on a minute, please? Could you come again tomorrow?

6. doubt, disbelief, improbability, surprise, reproach: He can’t be so old. He can’t have seen it. Can it be as late as that? You could at least have met me at the station, couldn’t you?

May expresses:

1. permission: You may go now.

2. possibility: The railways may be improved.

3. prohibition: You may not go swimming.

4. supposition, uncertainty: He may come. She may not know that you are here.

5. reproach: You might at least offer to help. You might have opened the door for me.

Must expresses:

1. obligation, necessity: We must begin before five to meet the deadline. I must go now.

2. prohibition: The girl mustn’t go home alone. Cars mustn’t be parked in front of the gate.

3. probability, near certainty: He must be crazy to have said that right in her face. You must have misunderstood me. He must be sleeping now.

To have to expresses:

1. obligation or necessity arising out of circumstances: I have to get up very early every morning to be at work on time. I didn’t have to get up early yesterday as it was my day off. Do you have to get up early?

To be to expresses:

1. obligation arising out of agreement, arrangement or plan: We are to complete this work by tomorrow. When is the wedding to be? I was to meet Mother at 11.

2. strict order, instruction: You are to do it exactly the way you are told.

3. strict prohibition: You are not to smoke here.

4. possibility: He was nowhere to be found.

Ought to expresses:

1. Moral duty, obligation: You ought to look after your children better. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

2. advisability: You ought to see a doctor.

3. probability: You ought to be hungry by now. Apples ought to grow well here.

4. reproach: You ought to be more polite. You ought to have done it on time.

Should expresses:

1. moral obligation or duty, but weaker than ought to: He should phone his parents more often.

2. advice: You should stay at home.

3. criticism, mild reproach: He shouldn’t be so impatient. You should have put more sugar in the pie. They should never have married.

Shall expresses:

1. promise, strong intention: It shall be done as you wish. He shall get his money. I want that prize and I shall win it.

2. threat, warning: She shall pay for it, she shall. That day shall come.

3. suggestion: Shall I get you a chair? Shall we begin?

Will and would express:

1. Willingness, intention, determination: I will be there to help. Who would lend me a cigarette?

2. polite request, offer: Will you pass the salt, please? Would you please pass the salt?

3. command: Will you be quiet! Sit down, will you?

4. insistence, resistence: The door will not open. The engine wouldn’t start.

Need may function both as a regular verb and as a modal verb. As a regular verb it has all the grammatical characteristics of regular verbs: He needs a new coat. Does he need a new hat too? No, he doesn’t need it. Last year he needed very many new things. You don’t need to do it now.

As a modal verb ‘need’ expresses necessity:

Need I do it? You needn’t do it just now. I don’t think we need mention him at all. You needn’t have done it.

Dare may also function as a regular and as a modal verb. As a regular verb it has the meaning ‘to have courage to do something’: He didn’t dare to apply to her. He doesn’t even dare to look at her. Did you dare a word with him?

As a modal verb it used in a similar meaning: How dare you speak in this tone? She daren’t write anything. Dare you ask him? I dare say you are right. I daresay he will come late.

SYNTAX

Syntax is the part of grammar which deals with sentences and combinability of words.

Anything that is said in the act of communication is an utterance. Most utterances are sentences, although there are some which can’t be called sentences: Oh, no! Charles! Look here! Goodness gracious! Thanks! Good-bye! Yes, of course! Sure!

There are several types of sentence classification.

The structural classifications:

1. Simple versus composite sentences (compound, complex)

The difference between the simple sentence and the composite sentence lies in the fact that the former contains only one subject-predicate unit and the latter more than one.

• Simple sentences: Birds fly. He is a student. They can play football very well.

• Composite (compound): You can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink.

• Composite (complex): You never know what you can do till you try.

2. Complete versus incomplete (elliptical)

The two kinds of sentences are distinguished by the presence or absence of the principle members of the sentence (subject or predicate).

• Complete: I came straight here. When did you arrive?

• Incomplete (elliptical): Ready? Happy, aren’t you? Where are you hurrying? – To the cinema.

3. Two-member sentences versus one-member sentences.

Two-member sentences may be either complete or incomplete. One-member sentences have only one principal part which is neither subject nor predicate: An old park. Mid-summer. Low tide, dusty water.

4. Extended versus unextended sentences

• John ran. / John ran quickly to the house. John is a student. / My friend John is a very clever student. Mary laughed. / Mary laughed heartily at his simple joke.

The communicative classification:

• Declarative

• Interrogative: general (yes/no questions), alternative, special (wh-questions), disjunctive (tag-questions)

• Imperative.

• Exclamatory.

Members of the sentence

Every English sentence, but for one-member and imperative ones, must have a subject. The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence.

The subject is generally expressed by:

1. a noun (common or proper) in the common case: The fog is thinning.

2. a noun in the possessive case: The grocer’s was full. Jim’s was a narrow escape.

3. a pronoun (personal, demonstrative, possessive, indefinite, interrogative):

• This is true.

• (My car is cheap.) Theirs is expensive.

• Somebody sighed.

• What happened?

4. a substantivized adjective: The wounded was moaning.

5. a numeral: The first appeared the best. Seven cannot be divided by two.

6. an infinitive: To live is to work.

7. a gerund: Lying won’t help.

8. any word or words used as quotations: ‘At’ is a preposition. ‘No’ was his answer.

9. a clause which is called ‘the subject clause’ and which makes the whole sentence a complex one: What I want to do is to travel.

Structurally the subject falls into four types:

• simple: Seeing is believing

• phrasal / extended: To ask him again was impossible. Uncle Laurie sent me to you.

• complex: For them to go back would be to admit defeat.

• clausal: Who has done this is still to be found.

All the subjects that have been analyzed so far are notional subjects. There are also formal subjects in English which are only structural elements of the sentence filling the position of the subject. In English there are two formal subjects: it and there.

As for the subject expressed by ‘it’, it (the subject) can function as a notional subject expressed by the personal pronoun 'it':