The past modals 'could have + past participle', 'should have + past participle' and 'would have + past participle' can be confusing. When I lived in Italy, we would often eat in the restaurant next to my flat.One of the particularities of the modal verbs is that they don’t work. They can also be used to form the future tense in English and to make conditional sentences. Each one of the modal verbs can be used to express one or more of these modalities. We can use 'will' and 'would' to talk about habits or things we usually do, or did in the past. In English, the modal verbs are used to express ability, possibility, permission or obligation. We also use modal verbs to say something is not allowed. We can use verbs such as 'can', 'could' and 'may' to ask for and give permission. We can use verbs such as 'must' or 'should' to say when something is necessary or unnecessary, or to give advice.Ĭlick here to find out more about obligation Permission My grandfather could play golf very well.Ĭlick here to find out more about ability.We use 'can' and 'could' to talk about a skill or ability. £200 for two cups of coffee!Ĭlick here to find out more about probability.

It's snowing, so it must be very cold outside.We often call these 'modals of deduction' or 'speculation' or 'certainty' or 'probability'. Can / could - exercises May / might Must / have to Shall / should Will / would Mixed modals - exercises Home. She (must) stay at school yesterday afternoon. Auxiliary verbs exercises elementary, intermediate and adavanced level esl.

If a modal verb can't be used with a certain tense, use its substitute. Probability:įirst, they can be used when we want to say how sure we are that something happened / is happening / will happen. Exercise on Modal Verbs and their Substitutes. English GrammarVerbsModal VerbsModal Verbs Free Exercise English Grammar Tenses Tense Comparison Verbs Verb Conjugator Nouns. Here's a list of the modal verbs in English: canġ: They don't use an 's' for the third person singular.Ģ: They make questions by inversion ('she can go' becomes 'can she go?').ģ: They are followed directly by the infinitive of another verb (without 'to'). Click here to download this explanation as a pdf.Ĭlick here for all the exercises about modal verbs

Modal verb exercises online