We'll give you lots of examples…. Catherine But first, we're listening to Fiona, who is a science reporter. And Fiona is talking about some ancient fossils that were found in China and Taiwan. Finn While you listen, think about this question: Are the fossils from humans?
It seems that the fossils can't be from any known human species. They might be the result of breeding between species or they may belong to an unknown human species.
The fossils suggest that before modern humans arrived in Asia, more diverse human groups may have lived there than previously thought. Catherine And the answer is: Maybe. Catherine Exactly.
Now the modal verbs might and may plus an infinitive show that we're talking about a present possibility, not a certainty. The modal verb could does this too, either with an infinitive or with a continuous form.
Here's an example. Finn In fact, we can say could be looking, might be looking or may be looking there. Catherine That's right: it's a modal verb plus the continuous form of be plus verb—ing. Now we use can't with an infinitive when we believe strongly that something isn't possible. The researchers believe strongly that the fossils don't belong to any known human species. They can't come from a known human species — it's not possible.
Finn So they must be from an unknown human species. Must or can't plus an infinitive both help us to express a strong belief that something is or isn't possible. It's different. Couldn't plus an infinitive means that something is completely impossible. Right then. Now let's look at possibilities and certainties in the past. Here's the next clip.
Finn So we can also use might, may, could, can't and must with have and the past participle of the verb when we think something was possible in the past. Catherine Yes, we can say may have lived, might have lived or could have lived to express past possibility.
Finn And we use can't or must with have and the past participle when we're certain about something in the past. For example, t he scientists can't have expected to find anything so important. Catherine And it's quiz time! Finn And the answer is must. Although can't is the short form of cannot , you usually don't use cannot in short answers without a verb following.
With cannot, the answer would be longer: Can Peter speak Spanish? No, he cannot speak Spanish. Give brief answers to the questions using the verb can. Keep the pronoun. Example: Can she read? Yes, she can. Check 1 Check and show solutions. Repeat exercise? Write questions or answers with can. For example: Can they fly? Yes, they can fly. Look at the pictures for help. Modality is when we use these verbs to express conditions on stuff. So we can use these verbs to determine if something is likely to happen, or certain to have happened.
Whether or not something is possible, or whether or not we have the ability to do something. Whether or not we have the permission to do something. And whether or not we have the obligation or requirement or need to do something. You already know all of these verbs, I promise you. You just didn't know this name for them. Let's meet the modals. Roll call, here we go. May, might, must, can, could, shall, should, will, would.
Those are the modals. So here's what modal verbs can do. Thing number one, they agree with everything. So you can take any one of these modals and you can use any subject in the world and it's not gonna change, right?
You take a word like talk, for instance, and you would say I talk, Diane talks. Right, you add the s. But any subject in any sentence is going to take the modal verb the same way.
Let me show you. I can do it, you can do it, she can do it, they can do it, we can do it. It's all the same. They agree with everything. Something else that modals do is actually something that they don't do. They don't have a to form, this is what we call the infinitive.
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