The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002

5.3. The modal auxiliaries
Unit five. Time, tense and aspect

Sections 483-485; 736

The modal auxiliaries do not have -s forms, -ing forms or -ed participles. Can, may, shall and will have corresponding past forms, while the other modals have only one form.

Dare and need can be constructed either as main verbs followed by a to-infinitive or as modal auxiliaries followed by a bare infinitive.

The modal auxiliary used is a past form which is always followed by a to-infinitive. This auxiliary often takes the do-construction, in which case the spellings use and used both occur.

Task **

Complete the following sentences, giving two grammatically acceptable versions where possible. N stands for ’negative’ and Q for ’yes-no question’.

1. (you / need) ... come back until the end of this week. (N)

2. (Sandra / used) ... send postcards when she was abroad. (N)

3. (you / dare) ... call me a selfish person? (Q)

4. (I / dare) ... think how disastrous such a policy might be. (N)

5. (Mrs Barnes / used) ... give money to charity? (Q)

6. (I / need) ... write more than thirty lines, sir? (Q)

7. (the PM / dare) ... call an election yet. (N)

8. (we / used) ... condemn such eccentric behaviour. (N)

9. (John / need) ... have his passport renewed? (N/Q)

10. (people / used) ... be afraid of ghosts in those days? (N/Q)