modal verb in English

noun
1
an auxiliary verb that expresses necessity or possibility. English modal verbs include must , shall , will , should , would , can , could , may , and might.
He shook his head impatiently. ‘We instruct the computer to ignore what we call grammatical words - articles, prepositions, pronouns, modal verbs , which have a high frequency rating in all discourse.
noun

Use "modal verb" in a sentence

Below are sample sentences containing the word "modal verb" from the English Dictionary. We can refer to these sentence patterns for sentences in case of finding sample sentences with the word "modal verb", or refer to the context using the word "modal verb" in the English Dictionary.

1. Definition of Cannot (modal verb): negative form of can

2. Could "Could" is a modal verb used to express possibility or past ability as well as to make suggestions and requests. "Could" is also commonly used in conditional sentences as the conditional form of "can."

3. The modal verb Could is most often used as a past-tense version of can, indicating what someone or something was able to do in the past; it can also be used instead of can as a more polite way of making a request or asking for permission

4. From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Could Could / kəd; strong kʊd / S1 W1 modal verb (negative short form Couldn’t) 1 past ability CAN used as the past tense of ‘can’ to say what someone was able to do or was allowed to do in the past By the time she was eight, she Could read Greek and Latin