In Modal verbs^x, Idioms^x

Julielai wrote: Just out of curiosity, Mr. P, how do you distinguish a native speaker who's learned a non-standard form of English from a decent non-native speaker? (e.g. How can you tell if a speaker born in India, Singapore or other Asian countries is native?) Hello Julie I'm not sure I...

No. I can't imagine a natural sounding sentence which contains those. The idiom "supposed to" may be considered a semi-modal. As such, it does not occur in the perfect tenses and is never preceded by another modal verb. This limits us to "am/is/are supposed to" and "was/were supposed to". ...

Hi Miriam, Actually "had better" is NOT a modal verb. Some authors call it a "modal idiom" (The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield), or a idiomatic modal. There are many English Grammar websites that talk about "had better" as a Modal Verb. For...