How do modals work?

I'll see that when it comes out, that's pretty good.

Hi, James Ingrid.

I was just saying I'll see a movie when it comes out.

I'm looking forward to the movie.

As you know, will is a future term.

Will is very versatile.

It's so versatile that I'm going to use a future term to teach you models.

One thing we know about will, which is different than going to, is that I can change the strength of it.

I can modify it.

It has different ideas.

The structure that's used is similar to models.

So I'm going to use this in here with Mr. E. Obama.

You know Barack Obama.

This is his cousin.

Hi, Barack.

Say hi.

Okay.

Barack says, "Yes, I can."

Model, right?

Model, I can.

I have the ability.

Mr. E says, "Yes, we will."

Because he doesn't know if he can do it, but he knows in the future maybe he can.

So how do we change this will to a can with Mr. Obama?

Okay?

All right, Obama.

I hope you're watching.

Congratulations.

You won.

All right.

First, when we say, "Yes, I will do something," or "I will do this," right?

I will go to the party.

I keep the next verb in the base.

Okay?

It's not "goes."

It's not "gonna."

It's just, "I will go."

The verb stays in the base.

Now, I can use models and do the exact same thing because I can use the verb in the base

formula with a model.

Let me give you an example.

So I can say this, "I..."

Why?

Well, "will" shows us possibility.

What I mean by that is it's future possibility.

When we say, "will," what we're saying is, "I've decided to do something, but I've decided

in this moment."

It's not planned or arranged prior to.

So instead of saying, "decided," why don't we speak properly and say, "You decide," present

tense, "in the moment."

And that's why we keep it in the base form to say, "I have decided now," in the present

tense, "to do something."

See?

Present tense.

So you know now.

So the model is also talking about possibility because, well, we've got a lesson.

You should check out the SEAM method for models.

Cool.

When we look at this, what we're expressing is a future, a possible future, because models

can be used for possibility, which are the future.

So this is a form of the future, and we use the same formula.

So we looked at, if you see here, "I will go to the party," "I might go to the party,"

both future events.

This is saying, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure," as in 70%.

This is saying, "Might."

It's possible.

So why don't we write out a structure for that so it'll make it easy to remember?

So when we did future with will, okay, we did subject plus will, right, plus verb, base.

Now when we do the modal, we'll do the same thing.

We'll put subject plus modal, right, plus verb in the base.

See, we're using will to show us how to do modals.

That's the first thing.

The structure is similar.

That's why we're using this one.

The next thing.

Will can be modified, right?

Will, I told you, I think, will is 70% true because you decide in the moment.

Well, maybe I want to make it 100%.

I want it stronger than that.

But I still want to talk about the future.

I don't want it to be so uncertain.

Because, by the way, will means the future is uncertain.

I'm talking to you now.

It's uncertain if I'll be talking to you tomorrow.

Maybe you'll look at one of the other teachers and go and check it out, okay?

But I'm pretty certain you'll come back later on.

But will means uncertain.

Modals are uncertain because we talk about modification.

Modal, it modifies itself depending on the tense.

So let's look here when we talk about how does it modify.

Well, if I want will to be stronger, I can actually say--

[pause]

Okay?

So, Ezekiel, you're saying, "I'm sure I will be president."

Yes, I will.

Okay?

I'm sure I will.

He's pretty proud of that.

He's like, "100%, that's going to happen."

Then the American government whispers in his ear.

He doesn't have ears.

[whispering]

He goes, "Okay, okay, I'm a worm.

I know I don't have arms and legs, but I still think I will be president."

This time he thinks, "Eh, 50% to 60%.

But don't count the worm out yet."

Then Ezekiel sees a bird come flying down,

and he realizes he's got no arms and legs so he can't run away.

And the bird is getting closer.

George Bush bird, going to eat him.

So he says, "I doubt I will be president."

So now we've gone from 100% to 50% to 60% to 10%.

We've noticed how I still use the future term "will" to talk about the future,

but the percentage of strength has changed.

Well, with modals we don't just do that.

We're not going to use the same word over and over again.

But what we can do is, instead of that, we can use with modals something like this.

Cool?

"I can be president."

100% ability, modified.

"I could be president."

60% to 70%, modified.

"If the bird doesn't eat me, I might be president."

Let's say 40%.

See how we modified this?

We used "will."

We just got rid of "will" and put these instead.

Cool, right?

So we showed how "will" and modals go together.

We talked about the verb and the base, the basic structure, and how we modify.

We can use it for modification, so you get the idea.

Alright?

I'm going to teach you how to understand this.

Now, "will," I told you, is a future word.

I've shown you how these things are using possibilities for the future.

How do I talk about the past?

Because what is possible now...

Oh, I don't want to say it, because I'll give it away.

It's a Mr. E.

I want you to think now.

We talked about future.

How do we talk about the past?

I have this word up here.

Perfect.

Future perfect.

Well, the future perfect is generally this, right?

It will have rained by 12 p.m.

What does that mean?

It's not raining right now.

It is not raining right now, because I have a future word right here.

So I know it's the future.

By 12 p.m. tells me something will be completed by 12 p.m.

So I'm not talking about one event.

I'm talking about two events.

So really, this sentence, and that's why I broke it into two parts, is two parts.

This is the first part, and this is the second part.

The second part is the later time.

It will have rained by 2 p.m.

So the rain would have already started, and completed started, then 12 p.m.

So I'm showing, if you look really carefully, this is a past.

Something will be not really past, but completed.

And when something's completed, you say it's past.

It's finished, right?

I finished my dinner.

You're not going to eat it tomorrow.

You finished it.

It's gone.

That's it.

Done.

Past.

So when we use a past participle, which is what this is, we are talking about the past.

Now, what's this for?

Well, have actually means connection.

Two things are connected.

In this case, the future is connected to something that will be completed.

That's the connection.

So we've used the past participle to show you how they are connected.

Do you understand?

Am I getting the point?

Good.

Are you getting the point?

That's most important.

Good.

Don't make me come that close again.

I'm ugly up close.

Okay, so I scared Ezekiel.

He was like, "Ugh!"

Okay, so we have this connection between the past and the future.

How is this going to work for modals?

Well, I told you "could," "can," and "might."

This step won't apply to "can," because "can" doesn't have a past tense.

Please remember that.

See?

Look at this.

"Can" does not have a past tense.

Its past tense is "could."

But when we talk about "could," "might," and "would," we can do something a little different.

So let's look at this.

See the structure here?

Let me get rid of Opa for a second here.

Coming back to Opa.

Well, here's what we do.

If I have a modal, I could say, "I could," right?

Could help you tomorrow.

What about yesterday?

Why are we copying the structure from the future?

If I can make the future connect to the past, I can make a modal connect to the past.

Okay, so "could" is here.

I'll put "have."

Right?

"Could have."

That's a PP.

So why don't I put, not "help," because that's present, but "helped."

I could have helped you.

Now let's look at what I've done here.

"Could" is possible.

That's what it means.

"Could" means possible in the present.

Plus "have" is connection.

And this is past.

Yes, I'm a genius.

Well, no, I'm not, but I like to put that on business cards.

I am a genius.

I really am.

Possible connection to the past.

So what I'm saying is the possibility is past.

They're connected, only that it was possible at one time, yesterday, it was possible.

But now, that is past.

So we use a "have" to show, just as we did here, how it's connected to the past.

Cool.

So modals, whenever you want to make a modal past, you actually do this.

You put "could have" together, plus a verb in the past participle.

And that's how you get it.

"I could have helped."

"It might have helped."

Right?

"It would have helped."

"You should have."

"Should have done your homework."

Cool.

Now, finally, we've got all this.

The last one I want to do is "opa."

"Opa."

Why?

I told you we can modify the strength of "will."

We can make it stronger or weaker.

I told you the basic verb tense is this.

We just put a verb in the base.

Notice the verb in the base here is the present tense.

Here, when we want to make it past, we use the perfect tense here.

Right?

With the past participle and "have."

The last thing is this.

Modals are called modals because they're modified.

They change.

They change their meaning depending on context.

And I want to show to you how "will" does that.

Okay?

So, here what we had here was, if you noticed, "opa."

"Opa," too.

And you might have said, "What the heck is 'opa'?"

Well, with "will," we can use "will" to offer something.

We can use "will" to promise something.

And we can use "will" to ask for something and agree to something.

"Opa."

Give you an example.

Offer.

Your bags look really heavy.

I'll help you.

I will help you.

I'm offering my help to you.

Okay?

Now, I'm not doing it in the moment.

First, I offer, and in the future, which is five seconds, you can say yes or no to that offer.

Okay?

So, you can say, "Yeah, help me," or "No."

So, I'm offering help.

Promise.

Will you do your homework tonight?

Yes, I will.

I promise I'll do my homework.

I make a promise to you.

Okay?

Agree.

Agree.

You could say, "James, look, why don't you come to my house about twelve o'clock?"

I go, "Okay, I'll, yeah, I'll come to your house then."

I'm agreeing with meeting you at a certain time.

We have an agreement.

You make a proposal.

I say yes to that proposal.

And ask.

Will I be able to teach you more?

Of course I will.

That's why you came to EngVid, right?

You saw the other forty-five videos.

Alright?

So, we've noticed how we took will to, and we've modified the meeting with Opa, showing

how we could offer, promise, agree, and ask.

Can we do this with models?

Well, of course we can.

See?

Yes, we will.

Yes, we can.

We're going to show can again.

Can is very funny.

Because as we have can here, let me use red.

I like red.

When we use can, can can be used to demonstrate ability.

I can see.

General ability.

We can talk about acquired skills.

I can speak five languages.

Actually, I can't.

Unless you include burping.

Like, "Brrr!"

That's a language for me.

Okay?

Okay, so we can talk about ability.

We can talk about possibility.

Remember possibility?

Leads to future meaning.

Like, I can help you tomorrow.

It's possible for me.

100% possible.

Alright?

We can use can for permission.

Asking for permission or expressing permission.

Can I go to the washroom?

Can you have my babies?

Or, yes, you can have my babies.

Yes.

Go to eBay.

I sell them.

Very cheap.

Okay?

So, I've shown you how we can take will and use it differently.

How we can take can and use it differently.

I've shown you how we use the perfects.

Okay?

The structure of the perfect to show, or future perfects, to show modal past.

I've shown you how the basic form of the modal is the same as will.

And I've shown you how it can be modified to get greater strength.

Alright?

So, if you've looked at all four of these cases, we've just taken will, from "Yes, we will,"

to...

Mr. Ezekiel Obama says, "Yes, we can."

And now how you do it from will to can.

And that's how Obama won the election.

Or, Mr. Ezekiel has won your hearts.

Okay.

But, what I want you to do, and I know you will do it, and you're going to promise me, right?

You're going to do it?

Okay.

So, I know you can do it.

Alright?

I want you to go here.

I don't want you to modify anything.

Alright?

Please go to www.eng, as in English, vid, as in video, dot com.

Where you can learn more about modals, grammar tenses, vocabulary, idioms, what Batman thinks.

That was a really good one.

Only if you're 18, please.

Okay?

And other subjects.

Alright?

Hope you enjoyed the lesson.

Look forward to seeing you soon.

Okay?

I'm sure I will.

Alright?

You can do it.

Bye-bye.