hep me help me

Practice material for the teaching of Model Verbs of English

A. Shall
1. Simple futurity
I shall go tomorrow.
We shall go tomorrow.
2. Asking permission or advise
Shall I bring the dog in?
Shall we dance?
3. Obligation, necessity or permission
Thou shalt not steal.
4. Promise
You shall have ten shillings if you come.
5. Intention of threat
He shall suffer for this.
I shall do just as I please.
B. Will
1. Simple futurity
Tomorrow will be Wednesday.
2. Willingness – polite invitation or polite request
Will you have another glass of beer?
3. Order or command
You will do as I say.
Will you keep Quiet!
4. Determination (stress)
I will be obeyed.
5. Characteristic habit
He will sit there chewing nuts all day.
The child will spend hours playing with a toy.
6. Natural property
Accidents will happen.
7. Statement of fact
This path will take you to the farm.
8. Likelihood
This will be the house.
9. Making an assumption
You will understand the difficulty I’m in.
You will see that there is no alternative.
C. Can
1. Ability
She can make her own dress
2. Permission and refusal
You can go when you have finished the exercise.
You cannot leave the classroom until the bell rings.
3. Impossibility
It cannot be true.
4. Possibility colored by incredulity
Can this be true?
5. Impatience and puzzlement (emphatic can)
Where can he have got to?
Where can he be?
E. May
1. Permission
You may go.
2. Possibility (with stress)
It may be true.
3. Uncertainty or conjecture
It may have been raining in the north this morning.
4. Reasonableness
We may expect a good harvest.
5. Light prohibition
You may not go out tonight.
6. Condescension or superiority
And who may you be?
7. Exclamatory wish
May you live to repent it!
May god bless you!
H. Should
1. Obligation, recommendation, or advisability
You should do what you are told.
A man should use his wealth for the good of others.
I should take it if I were you.
2. Reported speech
No inquiry was held, but the government promised the assembly that one could be held later.
3. Expectation
The wood is dry, so it should burn easily.
She should be there by nine.
4. Surprise or regret
I am surprised you should think this a good book.
5. Rhetorical questions
How should I know?
6. Contingency in conditional clause (chance occurrence)
If you should see him, give him my regards.
7. Hesitancy or deference
Should I ask her to tea?
Should I let him see his report?
8. Expressing an opinion or feeling
It is the nature of things that politicians should never be wholly trusted and never generally liked.
It is desirable that all adults should have the vote.
9. Instruction and correction
Applications should reach us before January.
She gives the writer’s name as John; it should be Jack.
10. After “lest”
I hit it lest he should see it.
I was worried lest he should get lost.
I. Would
1. Polite request
Would you please stop smoking?
2. Willingness and refusal
She would have done anything to make amends.
Even they tortured him, he would not confess.
3. Reported speech
He said he would go.
4. Habit or repetition
He would go for a swim every day.
5. Obstinacy
He would keep on interrupting.
6. Sarcasm (with strong stress)
John tore his shorts the first time he put them on. “Oh, he WOULD!”
7. Preference (with “rather” and “sooner”)
I would rather stay at home than go to the dance.
I would sooner have had a bracelet than this ring.
J. Could
1. Ability
I could speak English when I was five years old.
2. Polite request
Could you tell me the time?
3. Reported speech
He said he could sing.
4. Possibility and impossibility
I know what he said could not be true.
5. Impatience (stressed)
Where could it be? I saw it only this morning.
6. Exaggerate in order to stress feelings
I could eat a horse!