OT Grammar Police - I Need Your Help!

[Emily]

I know there are a lot of people on the boards who know English grammar better than I do, and I need your help because I searched the Internet for hours and couldn't find an answer to my questions.
The topic is: modals and their replacements.

The modals and the replacements I found are:
can - be allowed to, be able to
can't - not be allowed to, not be able to
could
couldn't
must - have to
mustn't - not be allowed to
need
needn't - not have to
will
won't
would
wouldn't
may
may not
might
mightn't
shall
shall not
should
shouldn't
ought to
oughtn't to

Are there more replacements to those modals? Or are those all the replacements, meaning that the other modals can't be used in all tenses?
Am I right that the italics are other forms of the preceding modals? Which forms?

Hope someone can help answering my questions.

 

[kristenthegreat]

From what I'm gathering from wikipedia (I never got to modals, but I'm getting the grasp of what they're trying to address):
Can/Could have the same replacements
Will/Shall are future, and have the replacements: am/is/are going to
Should/Ought are to be replaced with am/is/are supposed to

Must in MOST meanings works are you've listed, however, I know in English there are two options: you MUST do this (as you've listed), or you must BE (as in, there is a strong supposition that you are something, typically a feeling such as hungry, thirsty, exhausted, excited).

As for may/might, there's a whole bit on epistemic vs deontic usage: English modal verbs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -It's in English and it's a bit confusing for ME, and it's my native tongue. I don't know how much it will help what you're trying to do, but I figure it explains it all a bit better.

 

[Emily]

Thanks for your help! I TRIED getting through the wikipedia article, but even though I would say that I speak English quite fluently, there were so many words I had to look up and with all of the different meanings the article didn't make much sense to me. But lots of the things you wrote helped me a great deal.

Maybe someone else comes along and is able to answer the other questions I posted.

Oh, and I'm actually trying to figure this out to help one of the kids from the neighborhood to pass her English grammar test (which will be about modals, conditionals, reported speech and tenses - so I might have more questions in the next couple of weeks).

 

[Mamarazzi]

Oh, and I'm actually trying to figure this out to help one of the kids from the neighborhood to pass her English grammar test (which will be about modals, conditionals, reported speech and tenses - so I might have more questions in the next couple of weeks).

If that kid passes this test, he/she is officially more educated than most native speakers.

I just demoted myself to Grammar Mall Cop.

 

[Emily]

If that kid passes this test, he/she is officially more educated than most native speakers.

I just demoted myself to Grammar Mall Cop.

I'm a native German speaker, but have to admit that I know English grammar A LOT better than German grammar. I think it just comes with having to "learn" it versus "just getting" it by it being your mother tongue. Even my friends are better at explaining English grammar than German grammar (I once had a question and was lucky enough to meet a prof for German after our theater play premiere because nobody else could explain it to me - and I have lots of German teachers among my friends).

And because I had to learn it, I will probably never get why lots of native speakers don't know the difference between their / there / they're - those are completely different things and I don't have a clue how you can't keep them apart (same with your / you're, etc.).

 

[Nothanks]

And because I had to learn it, I will probably never get why lots of native speakers don't know the difference between their / there / they're - those are completely different things and I don't have a clue how you can't keep them apart (same with your / you're, etc.).

A lot of people can't keep those straight, but there's really no excuse other than laziness and ignorance. they're taught to us in elementary school. people just don't care to know the difference. haha

 

[Cheer Dad]

Wait, we have grammar police on the boards?

 

[Ren]

Emily

Could, would, might, and should are (generally) the conditionals of the words you've listed before them (can, will, may, shall).

However, "could" can also be used to indicate a past tense, i.e. "I could write..." could either be followed by "...a novel", in which case it would be conditional, or "...last year", which gives the sense that at some point last year you were able to write, but now you are no longer able to.

Technically, I think "allowed to" is more of a replacement for "may" than "can", although "can" is often used (incorrectly) in the sense of "being allowed to" over here i.e. asking a teacher "can I leave the room", when you actually mean "may I leave the room" (as you are perfectly able to leave, you are enquiring whether you are allowed.

However, "may" can be used in many other senses, best to check the Wikipedia page for each case as I'm a bit fuzzy about where the grammatical distinctions are.

Will and shall both have a future sense. Although would and should can be used to give a "future in the past" sense, I think this is relatively uncommon and can be confused when should has the meaning "ought" instead of "shall".

I think kristenthegreat covered most of the subsititutions.
"Have (to)" can be substituted for "need (to)" (and "not have (to)" for "needn't"), but only when need is being used as a modal verb (so "I need to buy bread" is the same as "I have to buy bread" but "I need bread" can't be subsitituted by "I have bread").

I think that's answered most things to the best of my knowledge as a native English speaker who never learnt grammar formally and wishes she had... Latin definitely helps with English grammar though!

 

[cupieqt]

If that kid passes this test, he/she is officially more educated than most native speakers.

I just demoted myself to Grammar Mall Cop.

Hahahahahahahah!!! Grammar Hall Monitor here.