13- Modal verbs explained in 15 minutes!

0:00 Intro Hi, everybody. Welcome back. 0:03 Speaker 2 A lot. 0:04 Speaker 1 Has happened since. 0:05 Speaker 2 I last recorded. I last. 0:07 Speaker 1 Recorded yesterday and if you've listened to my. 0:12 Speaker 2 Last episode or? 0:13 Speaker 1 Watched the video, I think it's episode 11. 0:17 Speaker 2 If I'm not. 0:18 Speaker 1 Mistaken, I said that I was going. 0:21 Speaker 2 To batch record. 0:23 Speaker 1 And. 0:23 Speaker 2 Record a bunch of stuff. 0:25 Speaker 1 All in one day. 0:27 Speaker 2 But as soon as I. 0:29 Speaker 1 Finished recording that video for you guys. My laptop, my 2017 MacBook Air finally died now. 0:41 Speaker 2 That laptop has. 0:43 Speaker 1 Been with me since the beginning, since before I even created English with Gemma and it's. 0:50 Speaker 2 Gotten me through a lot. 0:52 Speaker 1 And I'm very grateful. 0:53 Speaker 2 For that laptop. 0:54 Speaker 1 But it's been dying for like over a year now. 0:58 Speaker 2 Basically it has problems with the. 1:01 Speaker 1 Battery and. 1:03 Speaker 2 The keyboard stopped. 1:04 Speaker 1 Working So I was using an external keyboard plugged into the computer and I was just struggling for so long with that computer and then yesterday after I finished recording my. 1:16 Speaker 2 Episode the laptop just. 1:18 Speaker 1 Completely. 1:20 Speaker 2 Died the. 1:20 Speaker 1 Screen went black and it totally stopped working and shut off. Now this is an issue for my videos because as you can see I have this microphone here and I. 1:35 Speaker 2 Record the video. 1:37 Speaker 1 On my iPhone. So as long as my iPhone is fine. 1:41 Speaker 2 I have video. 1:42 Speaker 1 However, this microphone, the audio recording, needs a computer. 1:49 Speaker 2 A laptop because. 1:51 Speaker 1 It has to be plugged in and then I actually use the program Zoom which is the same program I use for teaching my. 2:00 Speaker 2 Classes to record the audio. 2:02 Speaker 1 And then I save the audio on Zoom and then I sync. I make sure that my mouth is moving at the same time as the audio. I sync that. 2:12 Speaker 2 Together after I record, so there's. 2:14 Speaker 1 A lot of behind the scenes and editing that goes into recording. 2:19 Speaker 2 A podcast or just YouTube videos? 2:23 Speaker 1 I'm not a very. 2:24 Speaker 2 Techie person so. 2:27 Speaker 1 You know, when my technology fails me, it's very frustrating. 2:31 Speaker 2 So yesterday I could only. 2:33 Speaker 1 Record one video and I managed. 2:36 Speaker 2 To get the audio. 2:38 Speaker 1 Recording from iCloud. 2:41 Speaker 2 Because the audio was. 2:42 Speaker 1 Stuck on my dead. 2:43 Speaker 2 Computer. 2:44 Speaker 1 So anyways since. 2:46 Speaker 2 That was even that was like. 2:47 Speaker 1 Less than 24 hours ago. Since then I have a new computer which I will show you a new laptop. Can you see it? 2:58 Speaker 2 If you're just. 2:58 Speaker 1 Listening. 2:59 Speaker 2 I will describe it for you. 3:01 Speaker 1 It's the. 3:03 Speaker 2 Color apparently is Starlight, which is kind of like. 3:06 Speaker 1 A champagne color and it is a. 3:09 Speaker 2 Beautiful MacBook Air. 3:12 Speaker 1 2022 and I'm. 3:14 Speaker 2 Very excited about it. 3:17 Speaker 1 It's been a long time coming. It's such a nice laptop, I'm really enjoying it so far. 3:25 Speaker 2 So hopefully it will. 3:27 Speaker 1 Last longer than my 2017 Mac because honestly I bought that 2017 MacBook Air my old. 3:34 Speaker 2 Laptop I bought. 3:35 Speaker 1 That in 2019. So it really hasn't been that many years, but unfortunately I think Apple. 3:42 Speaker 2 Products are. 3:44 Speaker 1 Not made to. 3:45 Speaker 2 Last SO. 3:47 Speaker 1 It's frustrating, but it is what it. 3:48 Speaker 2 Is. 3:49 Speaker 1 And you know, I need. 3:52 Speaker 2 A laptop. 3:52 Speaker 1 Because every single. 3:54 Speaker 2 Day I teach with a laptop so it really. 3:59 Speaker 1 You know, wasn't an option to continue. 4:01 Speaker 2 Without a laptop. So all that to. 4:04 Speaker 1 Say hi, here I am. And yes, you might notice that I'm wearing different clothes and stuff than yesterday. 4:13 Speaker 2 Because. 4:14 Speaker 1 I was just going to batch create, you know, record a lot of videos all in one day, but my. 4:21 Speaker 2 Technology had other plans, so. 4:23 Speaker 1 It's a new day. I'm going to quickly. 4:25 Speaker 2 Quickly record this. 4:27 Speaker 1 In between my. 4:27 Speaker 2 Classes. It's frustrating because yesterday I had. 4:31 Speaker 1 Way more free time, so you know, that's why I was going to record all my videos in one day. But hey, it's fine, we'll make it. 4:39 Speaker 2 Work so here. 4:41 Speaker 1 I am. 4:42 Speaker 2 Today with. 4:43 Speaker 1 Modal. 4:44 Speaker 2 Verbs for you guys. 4:46 Speaker 1 I'm going to try to briefly explain modal verbs in 10 minutes. 4:53 Speaker 2 So. 4:55 Speaker 1 Buckle in. 4:56 Speaker 2 Let's get started. So what? 4:58 What are modal verbs? Are modal verbs. 5:01 Speaker 2 Basically, modal verbs are auxiliary verbs. 5:05 Speaker 1 Helping. 5:05 Speaker 2 Verbs that express. 5:08 Speaker 1 Things. 5:08 Speaker 2 Like necessity, possibility, obligation, permission, prohibition. 5:16 Speaker 1 There are so many different types of modal verbs. The most common modal verbs include things like can, could, may, might, must. 5:28 Speaker 2 Shall, should, will. Oh, hello. Sorry everybody, we have to be interrupted so that. 5:36 Speaker 1 Tank my dog can sit on my lap. 5:40 Speaker 3 Up, up. Come on then. 5:43 Speaker 1 He really missed me because I've been away from home for a few weeks. 5:47 Speaker 2 Come on then. 5:48 Speaker 1 If you're coming up. 5:49 Speaker 2 Then let's go, because you're interrupting the the podcast. 5:52 Speaker 3 Let's go up, up. 5:57 Speaker 2 Sorry guys. 5:58 Speaker 1 One SEC I'm just bringing him up. 6:00 Speaker 3 1. 6:03 Speaker 2 2-3 lift off. There you go, buddy. 6:06 Speaker 3 Say hello to the. 6:07 Speaker 2 Podcast. Can you guys see him? 6:11 Speaker 1 If you're listening, maybe you can hear him. 6:14 Speaker 2 Tank say. 6:14 Speaker 1 Something to the microphone. I don't, I don't know if you guys can hear him, but he was sniffing, all right. 6:24 Speaker 2 How you're so heavy? Let's get back to modal verbs. So basically. 6:29 Speaker 1 Unlike regular. 6:30 Speaker 2 Verbs which? 6:31 Speaker 1 Normally express an action like run, see do, make. 6:37 Speaker 2 Modal verbs express. 6:40 Speaker 1 A function? OK, so they also don't change based on the. 6:46 Speaker 2 Subject which is. 6:47 Speaker 1 Nice. It's more simple that. 6:50 Speaker 2 Way so she should I should he should we don't have. 6:55 Speaker 1 To change the verb, we just keep it the same. Another thing that we have to be careful about with modal verbs. 7:01 Speaker 2 Is we don't use to all. 7:04 Speaker 1 Right, so for example I should. 7:07 Speaker 2 To study. 7:08 Speaker 1 No, just. 7:09 Speaker 2 I should study, you should to. 7:13 Speaker 1 Stop smoking. No. 7:15 Speaker 2 You should. 7:16 Speaker 1 Stop smoking. So whenever we use a modal verb with another verb. 7:21 Speaker 2 The second. 7:21 Speaker 1 Verb does not need to in front of it. OK, not the infinitive, just the bare infinitive. So bare infinitive means. 7:30 Speaker 2 Any verb without to. All right, so our first category is. 7:38 Permission Permission. Now today I'm not going to cover every single type of modal. 7:42 Speaker 2 Verb, because that would be. 7:44 Speaker 1 Not 10 minutes. 7:45 Speaker 2 Long SO. 7:47 Speaker 1 We're just going to have a look at some of them. 7:49 Speaker 2 So the 1st. 7:50 Speaker 1 Type is permission. 7:52 Speaker 2 So these models express that someone is allowed to do. 7:58 Speaker 1 Something the most common. 8:01 Speaker 2 Models to express. 8:02 Speaker 1 Permission include can, could and may. 8:06 Speaker 2 So for. 8:07 Speaker 1 Example can I leave? 8:09 Speaker 2 This party early. 8:10 Speaker 1 Asking for permission. You may leave. 8:14 Speaker 2 The party early, that's. 8:15 Speaker 1 Giving permission to someone else and. 8:19 Speaker 2 Could I? 8:20 Speaker 1 Borrow your pen. 8:22 Speaker 2 That's like a polite request. Could I use your phone? Could you tell me where? 8:30 Speaker 1 The nearest train station is, so we're using. 8:33 Speaker 2 Could as a polite request, which is. 8:35 Speaker 1 Kind of like asking someone for permission. 8:39 Speaker 2 So. 8:40 Speaker 1 Notice how can is more formal. 8:44 Speaker 2 While sorry can. 8:45 Speaker 1 Is more informal. For example, can I? 8:48 Speaker 2 Leave the party. 8:48 Speaker 1 You're probably talking to your friends, so it's pretty informal, while May and Could are more polite and more formal. 8:56 Speaker 2 So a quick tip is just to use. 8:59 Speaker 1 Can in casual situations, when you're talking to your friends or even just in in casual situations, like if you're on the phone with someone and you can't hear them, you can just say can you speak a little bit? 9:11 Speaker 2 More slowly, please. It's not. 9:13 Speaker 1 Like impolite to say that may and could are used when you need to be more polite and formal. So our next category is obligation. 9:25 Obligation This is when you. 9:26 Speaker 2 Must. 9:26 Speaker 1 Do something. You have to do something and it's mandatory. 9:32 Speaker 2 You're forced to. 9:34 Speaker 1 It's not an option. OK? My dog is gonna jump down. I'm just gonna put you down so you don't hurt yourself. 9:43 Speaker 3 Oh. 9:44 Speaker 2 He still fell a little bit. You OK? 9:47 Speaker 3 You good? You OK? Go back to sleep. OK. I love you. 9:56 Speaker 2 All right, so. 9:58 Speaker 1 Yes, obligation indicating that something is necessary. The most common models for obligation are must. 10:06 Speaker 2 Have. 10:06 Speaker 1 To should and kind of like an in not really that common is ought to you ought to do something not as common. 10:17 Speaker 2 So the first one. 10:19 Speaker 1 For my example would be, you must. 10:21 Speaker 2 Wear a seat belt. This is a. 10:24 Speaker 1 Strong obligation and. 10:26 Speaker 2 You probably will see this. 10:28 Speaker 1 When you're on like an airplane or a. 10:30 Speaker 2 Bus you'll. 10:31 Speaker 1 See a little sign that says something like seatbelts must be worn or you must wear your seat? 10:37 Speaker 2 Belt with have to I have. 10:41 Speaker 1 To finish my homework, that's like a necessity, a personal necessity that you something you have to. 10:47 Speaker 2 Do you should see a doctor? This is like giving. 10:51 Speaker 1 Advice to someone So it's not really an obligation, but it's like strong advice I. 10:56 Speaker 2 Think you should do this? 10:59 Speaker 1 And then you. 11:00 Speaker 2 Ought to apologize. 11:01 Speaker 1 It's like a moral obligation, like when something is morally right or wrong, we tend to use. 11:08 Speaker 2 You really, you really ought to apologize to her because. 11:11 Speaker 1 You hurt her feelings, for example, so must implies a strong internal obligation, often from the speaker. 11:20 Speaker 2 Have to usually refers to. 11:22 Speaker 1 External obligations like. 11:25 Speaker 2 Rules or laws like I have to do? 11:28 Speaker 1 My homework I have. 11:29 Speaker 2 To wake up at this. 11:30 Speaker 1 Time like it's a. 11:31 Speaker 2 Rule that you have to follow. 11:33 Speaker 1 And should and. 11:34 Speaker 2 Ought to are used for advice or. 11:37 Speaker 1 Moral obligations. 11:38 Speaker 2 Like I just said, so remembering this. 11:41 Speaker 1 Difference can really help you use these models in the correct contexts. 11:47 Speaker 2 For our third category, we're. 11:49 Prohibition Going to have. 11:49 Speaker 2 A quick look at. 11:50 Speaker 1 Prohibition. Prohibition, which means that you are not. 11:55 Speaker 2 Allowed to do. 11:56 Speaker 1 Something so the most common models for prohibition are must, not which. 12:03 Speaker 2 Is contracted to. 12:04 Speaker 1 Mustn't, mustn't. 12:08 Speaker 2 Be careful with the. 12:09 Speaker 1 Pronunciation. You mustn't. 12:12 Speaker 2 Do that. 12:13 Speaker 1 And cannot, which we know gets contracted to, can't, can't, and then finally may not all right. 12:23 Speaker 2 First example you. 12:24 Speaker 1 Must not smoke. 12:26 Speaker 2 Here. 12:27 Speaker 1 You mustn't smoke here. That's a strong prohibition. You cannot. 12:31 Speaker 2 Enter without a ticket. That's. 12:33 Speaker 1 Just a neutral prohibition like you can't do this. 12:36 Speaker 2 You can't do that but. 12:38 Speaker 1 It's not must, must is much stronger and then. 12:43 Speaker 2 To be formal, we use. 12:46 Speaker 1 May, may not. You may not use your phone during the exam. OK, that's formal prohibition. So you'll see that in formal situations like examinations, so mustn't is very strong. That's the strongest and it indicates. 13:02 Speaker 2 A strict. 13:02 Speaker 1 Prohibition cannot, can't, and may not. 13:07 Speaker 2 Also express. 13:08 Speaker 1 Prohibition like I. 13:09 Speaker 2 Just said but they're they're. 13:11 Speaker 1 Not as strong and they vary in formality. 13:14 Speaker 2 So using these correctly will help you. 13:17 Speaker 1 To understand and communicate. 13:20 Speaker 2 To other people. 13:21 Speaker 1 Rules and restrictions we have. 13:26 Speaker 2 Our last. 13:27 Speaker 1 Section now because I promised this was going to be a. 13:30 Modal verbs Short video for you guys or a short audio if you're listening to the podcast, so. 13:36 Speaker 1 Quickly, I just want to touch on some other modal verbs and their uses. 13:41 Speaker 2 So we also. 13:43 Speaker 1 Have models to. 13:44 Speaker 2 Express. 13:45 Speaker 1 Possibility and ability. 13:47 Speaker 2 For possibility. 13:48 Speaker 1 We can use might, could and may. So some examples for example would. 13:53 Speaker 2 Be. 13:55 Speaker 1 It might rain tomorrow. 13:57 Speaker 2 It's a possibility. 13:59 Speaker 1 We don't know for sure it might. 14:01 Speaker 2 She could be at the. 14:03 Speaker 1 Library. That's another possibility. We don't know where someone is, we're just giving suggestions. 14:08 Speaker 2 Where they could be, she could be at home, she could be at the library. 14:13 Speaker 1 And then our last one to. 14:15 Speaker 2 Express possibility. 14:16 Speaker 1 You may get a phone call soon, so May and mites can kind of be used interchangeably. 14:23 Speaker 2 For ability we use. 14:25 Speaker 1 Can and. 14:25 Speaker 2 Could so for example I. 14:28 Speaker 1 Can speak Spanish, that's a present ability. I can present simple if I want to talk about something in the. 14:34 Speaker 2 Past a past ability that I had, but I lost, I could swim very. 14:44 Speaker 1 Fast when I was younger, but now I can't. 14:46 Speaker 2 All right, so that's. 14:47 Speaker 1 Why we change can from could when we talk about past ability and finally. 14:53 Speaker 2 For polite requests or offers. 14:56 Speaker 1 We can use. 14:57 Speaker 2 Would. 14:58 Speaker 1 Shall and can would you like? 15:01 Speaker 2 Some. 15:01 Speaker 1 Coffee. Yes I would. No, I wouldn't. That's a polite offer. 15:06 Speaker 2 Shall we begin? That's a polite. 15:08 Speaker 1 Suggestion or? 15:10 Speaker 2 Shall we watch a movie? 15:11 Speaker 1 Tonight. 15:12 Speaker 2 Again, polite suggestion. 15:13 Speaker 1 These are both very formal. 15:16 Speaker 2 All right, let's practice if you are just. 15:20 Speaker 1 Listening, you can also. 15:21 Speaker 2 Practice. Just listen. 15:22 Speaker 1 Carefully to the sentences so I'm gonna give you a few sentences and then you'll. 15:26 Speaker 2 Choose the correct. 15:28 Speaker 1 Modal verb ready. 15:30 Speaker 2 Let's go. 15:31 Speaker 1 You must or can wear a uniformed school, so think about. 15:39 Speaker 2 This is this. 15:41 Speaker 1 Prohibition, Obligation, ability. You must or can wear a uniform to school. It's going to be you must wear a uniform to school. 15:55 Speaker 2 Because it's an. 15:55 Speaker 1 Obligation that. 15:57 Speaker 2 Everybody has to follow, all right? 16:00 Speaker 1 Next one may. 16:03 Speaker 2 Or. 16:03 Speaker 1 Can I have some water? 16:05 Speaker 2 Please. 16:07 Speaker 1 May or can I have some? 16:09 Speaker 2 Water please. 16:11 Speaker 1 What's it going to be? May or can may. 16:15 Speaker 2 I have some water. 16:16 Speaker 1 Because we're asking permission politely. 16:19 Speaker 2 Can would be for ability a lot. 16:22 Speaker 1 Of native speakers say can I have some water? But grammatically, it's incorrect. 16:26 Speaker 2 Because when you say, can I have some water it? 16:28 Speaker 1 It sounds like you're asking can you physically drink water? But you're not asking this. You're asking may I have some water? You're asking for someone to give you water, and you're asking. 16:40 Speaker 2 Politely so. Great job you guys. Those are just a few. 16:45 Speaker 1 Little sentences to. 16:45 Speaker 2 Quickly practice and. 16:48 Speaker 1 Now if you want to take it one step. 16:49 Speaker 2 Further. 16:51 Speaker 1 Make your own sentences look. 16:53 Speaker 2 Have a look at some modal. 16:54 Speaker 1 Verbs online, there's so many exercises you can do, or you can make your own sentences and, you know, practice. 17:02 Speaker 2 That way but modal. 17:04 Speaker 1 Verbs are something that takes time and patience to understand and start using confidently, so just be patient. 17:12 Speaker 2 All right, Quick recap. Today we looked. 17:15 Speaker 1 At modal verbs for permission, obligation, prohibition as well as some other ones like. 17:21 Speaker 2 Expressing possibility ability. 17:23 Speaker 1 And also making polite. 17:25 Speaker 2 Requests. So modal verbs are crucial. That's the key take away. 17:31 Speaker 1 From this you cannot really speak English or understand English efficiently. 17:38 Speaker 2 Without having a. 17:40 Speaker 1 Good grasp on your modal verbs, so make sure. 17:43 Speaker 2 That you really. 17:45 Speaker 1 Take some time. 17:46 Speaker 2 To properly practice these, today's video was just. 17:50 Speaker 1 You know to quickly. 17:51 Speaker 2 Introduce the topic to you. 17:53 Speaker 1 And give you a short little insight into. 17:56 Speaker 2 How they're. 17:56 Speaker 1 Used but now. 17:57 Speaker 2 I really suggest. 17:58 Speaker 1 Going away and looking at modal verbs in more detail. 18:04 Speaker 2 So as always. 18:05 Speaker 1 Thank you guys so much for watching. That concludes. 18:08 Speaker 2 Today's video. Sorry. 18:10 Speaker 1 About the long explanation of my. 18:14 Speaker 2 Audio problems but. 18:17 Speaker 1 I am always. 18:18 Speaker 2 Grateful for you guys. 18:21 Speaker 1 Returning and watching or listening to my. 18:25 Speaker 2 Podcast. 18:26 Speaker 1 Or videos on YouTube. I'm really grateful. 18:28 Speaker 2 For you all. 18:29 Speaker 1 And you know, even though I'm not super professional, I'm getting there. I'm learning. I'm always learning more about how to improve. So thank you for being patient with me and thanks. 18:41 Speaker 2 For being here until next time, see you later. Bye.