Magnificent Modals Part 3: Talking about certainty and possibility…

Modal verbs…again! In previous posts, we’ve looked at  general modal rules and modals of obligation in Part 1; modals of ability and permission in Part 2; and we’ve decided to let you know about modals of certainty and possibility (modals of deduction) here in Part 3. Let’s get flying and hopefully you’ll find it useful…! Where do you think this picture was taken?  …

Magnificent Modals! Part 2: Permission (requests) and ability

“Please, sir, can I have some more?” is a very famous quotation from a character in English literature called Oliver Twist.  The modal verb in this sentence  is “can”.  and it is being used in this sentence to ask for something. Let’s look at how this works. To start, here is  a short Youtube video lesson on modals…

Magnificent Modals! Part 1: What are modal verbs? Tips on modals of obligation

Some of the questions we’re going to explore this week include: What are modal verbs? What do modal verbs do? Some tips and explanations on modal verbs of obligation. What are modal verbs?  There are many modal verbs. They include can, could, would, should, must, will, may, might and shall. There are also some semi-modals which have some of the…

“She says” or “She’s saying”? When to use Present Simple or Present Continuous

Do you ever get frustrated not knowing which tense to use? This week we’re going to look at the differences between the present simple (I walk, you walk, she walks etc) and the present continuous (I’m walking, you’re walking, she’s walking etc). There is only one now – why can’t we just have one present tense?…