Modal Auxiliary Verbs and Related Structures

In Chapter 5 we introduced the concept of auxiliary verbs and examined the three primary auxiliary verbs, be, have, and do. Chapter 6 explored how be and have act as helping verbs in forming different verb tenses, and how do acts as a helping verb to form questions and negatives in present and past tense. This chapter examines another type of auxiliary verb, the modal auxiliaries, which are referred to as modal auxiliary verbs, or modal auxiliaries, or simply modals. Included in this examination are related structures. The chapter is divided into three sections: The first section examines modals; the second focuses on one particular modal with many uses, would, and the last section discusses what is commonly referred to as “the conditional.”