Imagine trying to speak without expressing possibility, permission,or necessity; it would be like painting without colour. That’s were the modal verb step in. These special helping verbs—can, could, ...

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea minima culpa: Michael Bulley (Letters, 10 May) is right to correct me – Latin does have the modal verbs he names, which cover possibility (possum), permission (licet) and ...

There are three basic kinds of verbs plus many subclasses. Here we cover only the three basic types. Initially, verbs are divided into main verbs and auxiliary verbs. Then auxiliary verbs are divided ...

When we want to talk about what we are obliged to do (or what we must do), we can use the verbs 'must' or 'have to'. To talk about what we are permitted to do (or allowed to do), we can use the verbs ...