ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Modal verb and Auxiliary

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:32:34 GMT

You call them differently because they are different.

Auxiliary verbs (also called Primary auxiliary verbs - to be, to have and to do) form tenses and show Aspect. They can also be lexical verbs and they can be inflected. Modal auxiliary verbs do not change form and they add modality to the lexical verb.

Both, auxiliary verbs and modal verbs are helping verbs

Re: Modal verb and Auxiliary

paco2004 — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 10:00:42 GMT

There are two schools about how to class such stuff.

School A classes all of the below as auxiliary verbs
'be', 'do', 'have', 'will/would' 'shall/should', 'can/could', 'may/might', and 'must' are all classed as auxiliary verbs.

School B
classes 'be', 'do', 'have' as true auxiliary verbs, and
'will/would', 'shall/should', 'can/could', 'may/might', and 'must' as modal verbs.

If you are interested in the differences between true auxiliaries and modals, visit THIS SITE.

paco

Modal verb and Auxiliary

Lcchang — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 09:41:35 GMT

Can any teacher here explain the difference between the modal verb (can, could, may, might, must....) and the auxiliary (can, could, may, might, must....)? If they are the same thing, why do we have to call them by different names? Many thanks.

Lcchang