There are nine modals. Each one is followed by a verb with no ending: she can go, never she can goes. On the 76 modals in one chapter of a novel, a bare verb follows 65 times, and nothing with an ending follows at all. The other eleven rows are worth reading, because none of them breaks the rule.
Core ideas
Three ideas, and the second one is the whole lesson.
Nine words are modals. Each is a modal: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. They add a meaning — ability, chance, need, a plan — to the verb that follows. They never take -s, -ed or -ing, and they have no to after them.
A sentence needs one word that shows the tense, the time. In she could go that word is could, so go is left bare, with no ending. An -s or an -ed on go would show the tense a second time. She can goes and he must went do just that.
Not and short adverb words sit between a modal and its verb: could not do, will certainly come. The lab steps over them, and counts those rows apart. The verb after them is still bare.
The material
65 of 76 is 85.5%. The other eleven are sorted by the lab, and no one of them has a verb with an ending.
Take a verb, put can in front, and the verb loses its endings. She walks, but she can walk. He went, but he could go. The helping verb has taken the work, and the main verb is left bare.
There are nine words that do this, and they are called modals: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. They add a meaning to the verb after them — whether it can, may or must happen — and they have no forms of their own.
A clause shows its tense once. In she could go, the tense is in could. Add an ending to go and the tense is shown twice. That is the mistake in she can goes: the speaker has put the third person ending on a verb that follows a word which has already taken it.
The lab finds every modal in Chapter XXVI and reads what follows. There are 76. A bare verb follows 65 times, which is 85.5%. Of those 65, 20 have not or an adverb between the modal and the verb: you could not do better, we shall often meet. The bare form holds through the gap.
The test of the rule is a row that would break it: a modal followed by a verb with -s, -ed or -ing. The lab has a box for that, and in the chapter it holds 0.
Four rows have a pronoun right after the modal. Two are questions, will you come and how can I promise: the bare verb comes after the subject, so the rule holds, but the scan reads one word and files it apart. Two are not. In he should not. I see the modal ends its sentence and the scan read on past the full stop; in will, I am sure, be a remark stands between the modal and its verb. Seven rows are filed as something else. Look at them: two have a bare verb the word list does not know, one has a bare verb behind but, one has the verb left out, and three put no longer or at present in the way. None of them has an ending on the verb.
Counted once over the whole novel, which no page can carry, and quoted here, there are 2,738 modals. A bare verb comes directly after 58.5% of them. Not comes between in 14.9%, and an adverb in 9.5%. A pronoun comes next, a question, in 5.2%. A verb with an ending follows 3 of the 2,738, which is 0.1%, and the three are worth naming: as soon as he could, provided he chose; as well as she could, said that; as soon as we can, said Jane. In each the modal ends its clause, and the verb after the comma belongs to the next one. The rule has no true exception in 2,738 rows, and that is a rule worth stating simply.
The two modern documents give 16 of 17 rows, 94.1%, and again no verb with an ending. The one row that is not a hit is the month May in changes in May, which the scan reads as the word may.
Interactive
Every pronoun, modal, have, be and not in the chapter, and what comes next
| box | pronoun subjects | share |
|---|
Method
Four questions.
It is one of the nine. Ought, need and dare work much the same way, and the lab does not count them as modals.
Should not, will certainly: look past them for the next word.
A bare verb is the base form, with no ending and no to: go, be, have, see. If it is, the rule holds.
Can I promise, will you come: a question turns the modal and the subject round. The bare verb comes after the subject.
The lab sorts the eleven into two kinds: four rows with a pronoun right after the modal, and seven filed as something else. Reading them finds more kinds than two.
Two of the four rows with a pronoun next are the modal and its subject turned round, will you come and how can I promise. The bare verb follows the subject, so the rule still holds, but the scan reads one word and cannot see that. The other two are not questions. In better that he should not. I see the imprudence the modal ends its sentence, and the scan has read on past the full stop; in Lizzy will, I am sure, be incapable a remark sits between the modal and its bare verb, be. The seven rows in something else are four kinds of gap. For endeavour and consent the verb is bare, but the word list the scan uses does not hold it. In could not but be the bare verb is there, behind but. In you certainly shall the verb has been left out, because the sentence before it says it. And three rows put no longer or at present before the verb, words the scan does not step over. In none of the eleven does a verb with an ending follow a modal.
You should be able to list the nine, say why a modal never takes -s or -ed, allow not or an adverb between a modal and its verb, and read off a printed chapter what actually follows a modal, row by row.
Something to change about this lesson? Write it down, tick it off when it is handled, and export the list when you want to act on it. Kept in this browser only: nothing is sent anywhere, and nobody is notified.
No recommendations yet for this lesson.