Page 269 - Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies 2009

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Part IV: The Grammar You Need to Know – and How to Teach It
✓ can
✓ could
✓ may
✓ might ✓ must
✓ shall
✓ should ✓ ought to ✓ will
✓ would
Even though you can create a short sentence with just a modal verb and no main verb, the main verb is understood because of the rest of the interchange:
A: Yes, I can.
B: You can what?
A: Go to the office, of course.
When you put all these modal verbs into a sentence you find that they go between the subject, words such as ‘you’ and ‘we’, and the main verb, as shown in Table 17-1.
Table 17-1
Subject
The tourists They
She
Sentence Structure with Modal Verbs
Modal Verb
should might will not
Main Verb Object
go home follow us like that
In questions, the word order is different though, so the subject word goes between the modal verb and the main verb. Table 17-2 offers some examples.
Table 17-2
Question word
When How Why
Sentence Structure with Modal Verbs and Objects
Modal Verb
should might won’t
Subject
the tourists they
she
Main Verb
go follow like
Object
home? us? that?