Modal Verbs


You can use modal verbs when you want to express different nuances like degrees of certainty.


💢 Could, might and may are modal verbs and can be used to refer to possible but uncertain actions in the future, with might being slightly less certain than may.


🔘 Examples:

✅ We could be late if we stop for drinks now.

✅ I may want to spend my holiday in Europe, but everything depends on my partner.

✅ We might want to move to a different class if the problem persists.


💢 Could have, might have and may have are used to express possible actions in the present or past—you are suggesting that these actions are or were possible, or that they are or were completed.


🔘 Examples:

✅ They could have left hours ago.

✅ It’s almost midnight in Spain, the plane might have landed by now.

✅ I may have mentioned your name to my colleague.


💢 Can is used to make general possible statements about the present, while could is used as the past of can with this meaning.


🔘 Examples:

✅ My boss can be very demanding at times.

✅ Students can be difficult to motivate in evening classes.

✅ My boss could be very demanding when I first got hired.

✅ Students could be difficult to motivate when I was an inexperienced teacher.


💢 Can’t (cannot) is used to express impossibility.


🔘 Example:

✅ These conclusions can’t be right.


💢 Must is used when we are sure something is true and must have is used with the same meaning for the past.


🔘 Examples:

✅ There must be a better explanation for why they haven’t arrived yet.

✅ They must have changed their marketing strategy to afford such good prices.


Why is this useful for IELTS?


In the IELTS exam, you may find modal verbs in reading and in listening and if you get their meaning right you stand a better chance of getting that part of the test right.


In speaking you may want to use them in Part 3 when extending the discussion from yourself to other aspects the examiner might ask you about. Modal verbs can be used to express probability when making generalizations and talking more abstractly.


Now try practicing them by filling in the gaps with the right modal verbs studied above:


1️⃣1️⃣ This ___ (not be) your phone, I know you had a different ringtone.


1️⃣2️⃣ It ___ (be) Donna at the door, she called to say she is sick.


1️⃣3️⃣ They ___ (change) their plans, but they haven’t said anything to me.