33 Should is usually replaced, nowadays by would. It is still used however to means
ought to. Examples:
• You really shouldn’t do that.
• If you think that was amazing, you should have seen it last night.
Should with the first person pronouns in expressions of liking such as “I should prefer iced tea” and in tentative expression of opinion
Examples: •
I should imagine they’ll vote conservative. •
I should have thought so.
4.3 Can and Could
Modal verb can is used to possession of ability in general or in a particular circumstance at the present or future time. Can is regularly and correctly used to
ask for and give permission and it has been used that way for centuries. It is also used to express a general possibility. The negative of can is the single word
‘cannot’. Can is request and permission is often used informally. It usually sounds less polite than could.
Could is a complex modal with several meanings and kinds of nuances. Could offer suggestions and possibilities when could is used in the negative to
express possibility, it takes on meaning”90” impossible. Sometimes could is interchangeable with maymight for possibility and sometimes it is not. Could is
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34 also use sometimes with the sense of ‘may’ or ‘might’, expressing specific
possibility. Could function can also use to conditional idea. There are some rules of auxiliary verbs can and could it has little different
with rules of ‘may and might’. For clearly, we can see bellow: a
There is no suffix-as for third person singular. b
Questions in negatives are made without do. c
After can and could it is use with infinitive without to of other verbs. d
Modals verbs of can and could have no infinitive or participles. e
Modal verb could it sometimes use as the past of can. However, it can also be use as last definite or conditional form of can, revering to the
present or future. f
Certain past ideas can be express by can or could followed by a perfect infinitive.
Modals verbs can and could can use to all person on the present and future. If the subject of third person singular the verb is not “ses”. generally the usage of
modal verb can and could are use to express ability, possibility, permission, request, critics, order and suggestion. Beside the usage of modal verbs, there are
also function that use in the usage of modal verbs. Can used to express ability in the sense of being able to do something or
knowing how to do something. Meanwhile it is used form in the past. Examples :
• He can speak Spanish but he can’t write it very well.
• They can lift a big table
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35 •
I could always beat you a tennis when we were kids. •
We could finish this work if you were not leave me. In expression ability, can and could frequently also imply willingness; “can you
help me with my homework?” Auxiliary verbs of can used to express permission in the sense of being allowed
or permitted to do something, and to express past or future permission used could. Can is less formal than may.
Examples: •
Can I talk to my friends in the library waiting room? •
You can go home now. •
Could I bury my cat in your back yard? •
I could go to the mountain with my friends. Can also use to express theoretical possibility and could express possibility or
ability in contingent circumstances. Examples:
• It can be hard rainfall if there are many dark clouds in the skies.
• American automobile makers can make better cars if they think there
is a profit in it. •
If he studied harder, he could past this course. •
If they didn’t drive fast, the accident could not be happened. Could also always express present possibility.
Examples: •
We could always spend the afternoon just sitting around talking.
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36 •
They could often find much money from that job.
4.4 May and Might
