Intermedio [B2]
[ES] ¿ Qué son los verbos modales?
Los verbos modales son auxiliares que nos permiten expresar mayormente educación. Dentro de la cultura británica es común hablar sobre lo «políticamente correcto» y por supuesto, modales. Hoy discutimos su función y su uso pero primero veamos cuales son los más populares: Can, must, shall, may, will, would, should, could, ought to and might.
Función dentro de la estructura
Los verbos modales ocupan la posición y función que ocupa un verbo auxiliar pero a diferencia de estos, los modals sí tienen significado. Usualmenrte seguidos de un infinitivo sin el «to» (con la excepción de ought to), nunca cambian de forma lo que significa que no agregan ningún sufijo. Finalmente los verbos modales no tienen información gramatical de número o tiempo.
Usos
Recordar que los verbos modales cargan significado y le dan sentido al verbo principal dentro de la frase por lo tanto, hay diferentes usos que se aplican a estos verbos. Los más comunes son:
- Predicción: You will marry a famous actor
- Posibilidad: He ought to have got home by now
- Habilidad: Mary can sing like a bird
- Deducción: It must probably be Tom who painted the wall
- Necesidad. You don’t have to do that but thank you very much!
- Deber y concejo: You should always speak up!
En otras palabras cuando pienses en verbos modales intenta pensar en maneras y respeto. La lengua inglesa puede ser bastante formal lingüísticamente hablando y nosotros como parlantes no nativos debemos respetar eso especialmente si queremos ser intelegibles a otros hablantes en ese idioma.
Intermediate [B2]
[EN] What are Modals?
Modals are auxiliary verbs that permit us express mostly politeness. Within the British culture, it is common to speak about political correctness and of course, manners. Today we’ll discuss the function and their use but first let’s get to know the most popular ones: Can, must, shall, may, will, would, could,ought to and might.
Function within the structure
Modals occupy the position and function as an auxiliary verb does but they differ in the fact that modals do have meaning. Usually followed by bare infinitive forms (without ‘to’ particle, with the exception of ought to), they never change form, which means they don’t add any sufix. Finally, modals don’t carry gramatical information of number or tense.
Usage
Remember modals carry meaning and they give sense to the main verb within the sentence therefore there are different uses these verbs apply. The most common ones are:
- Prediction such as in You will marry a famous actor.
- Possibility for example: He ought to have got home by now.
- Ability such as in Mary can sing like a bird.
- Deduction, It must probably be Tom who painted the wall.
- Necessity, You don’t have to do that but thank you very much!
- Duty and advice. E.g: You should always speak up!
In other words, whenever you think of modals try to think of manners and respect. English language can be quite formal linguistically speaking and we, as non native speakers, must respect that especially if we want to be intelligible to other speakers in that language.
