Auxiliary and Modal Verbs

Some examples of auxiliary verbs include:

• She is cooking dinner for us tonight.
• Does he play the ukulele?
• They have finished the assignment.
• He was reading a book during lunchtime.
• I did call you last night.

Modal verbs are placed right before the base form of the main verb in a sentence and help express possibility, ability, or necessity. Note that the main verbs used after the modal verbs do not take '-s', '-es', or '-ing' at the end of the verb.

Examples:

• She can sing beautifully.
• It might rain later today.
• He should apologize for his bad behavior.
• You must complete your work before the deadline.

Modal Verbs or Modal Auxiliary Verbs are the helping verbs that help express the mood or attitude of the speaker. Simply put, modal verbs help describe the ability, necessity, permission, possibility, or obligation in a sentence. Modal Verbs are used before the V1 form of a main verb and do not change with the change in subject.

Modal Verbs include will, would, shall, should, can, could, might, need to, ought to, etc.