How to Use MODAL VERBS in English Like a Native

Okay. So, we use ‘must’ for obligations.  

“He must... be working”. Wait,  that doesn’t make any sense. 

Oh, well. Let me play the next phrase without  subtitles and I`ll see if I can understand it.

Okay. He said “You should told  me”. I think I got this one.

Oh! He said “You should HAVE told me.”

But I didn’t hear that.

If you have been learning English for a while,  you have probably studied something called  

“Modal Verbs”. For example, you probably  know that we use “Must” for obligations,  

“May, Might or Could” for possibilities  and “Should” for suggestions, right?  

But did you know that there are more  advanced ways to use these words in English? 

In this video, you are going to learn  three advanced aspects of Modal Verbs.  

Take a look at these letters on the screen. Each letter refers to one of the advanced  

uses of modal verbs we will be discussing  today. Can you guess what they stand for? 

So stick around until the end of  this lesson because you will learn  

what these letters stand for and how to  use Modal Verbs in a more advanced way. 

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Number one, deduction. To make a deduction  means to reach a conclusion after thinking  

about the known facts. Let me tell  you a bit about a girl named Sarah.  

Sarah has a brother, Matt, who is two years older  than her. They have always gotten along well,  

but they’ve recently fallen out with each other.  You see, Sarah was playing in her room with one of  

Matt’s toys, one of his favorite superhero action  figures. When Matt saw his sister playing with his  

toy, he got really angry, took the toy away from  her and started yelling at her. Sarah then kicked  

her brother’s leg and ran away. Furious, Matt  yelled again. “I’ll never play with you again!”. 

However, you walk through the park one day  and see Sarah and Matt talking and laughing.  

They seem friendly towards each other.  They’re playing together and Matt even  

hands in his favorite superhero action figure  to his sister. What can you deduce from this?

If you answered all of them, you are correct! 

We use “must” when we feel sure that something  is true or it’s the only realistic possibility.  

In this example, I gave you some facts and  background information about Sarah and Matt,  

and based on this information, you could deduce  that they must be talking to each other again. 

Options B and C are also correct. We use “may” or  “might” to say that we think something is possible  

but we’re not sure. They have the same meaning,  but “may” is a bit more formal than “might”. 

We can also use “could” instead of “may” or  “might”. So the phrase here could be “Matt and  

Sarah could be talking to each other again”. Here are more examples:

John is usually very talkative, but today he’s  really quiet. He must be upset about something. 

I don’t know why Jenny doesn’t want  to play with us. She might be sick. 

Bob should be here already.  He may be stuck in traffic. 

Maria looks so happy. She could be in love.

Now if you feel sure that  something is not possible,  

you can use the word “can’t”. For example: 

Are you telling me that Patricia passed the  test without studying? That can’t be true! 

They had a really nasty argument. They  can’t be talking to each other now. 

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Number two, speculation about the past. To speculate means to guess possible answers  

when you do not have enough information to be  certain. In the second part of this lesson,  

you’re going to learn how to use Modal  Verbs to speculate about the past. 

Now it’s time for me to tell you a little bit  about a young man named Jack Jackson. Jack  

Jackson lives in Jacksonville, in an apartment on  Jackson Street. He’s a university student and his  

classes are in the morning. Jack lives alone with  his dog Jackie. But there’s a problem: Jack is not  

the most organized person. In fact, his house is  really messy - there are always dirty dishes in  

the sink and things scattered all over the place. Today Jack is really excited - his older brother  

is coming to visit him. His brother, John Jackson,  is a very neat man. He loves to see everything  

clean and organized. He told Jack he would be  arriving this morning. Since Jack has classes  

in the morning, he tells his brother to get the  keys to the apartment under the welcome mat. 

John Jackson arrives at Jack’s  place and has a shocking surprise:  

the place is a complete mess! Hours later,  Jack gets home and greets his brother. Then,  

he realizes that the whole apartment is clean  and organized. What do you think happened?

If you chose option B, you are correct! We use must have + past participle when we  

feel sure about what happened. In this example,  with all the information we know about Jack,  

it’s fair to assume that his brother was  the one who cleaned his apartment. And we  

can say this with a lot of conviction,  given what we know about the situation. 

Now if you don’t feel so sure about  what happened, you can also say: 

“His brother may have cleaned the apartment”. “His brother might have cleaned the apartment”. 

“His brother could have cleaned the apartment”. On the other hand, since we are sure Jack  

didn’t clean his apartment, we could say: “Jack can’t have cleaned his apartment.” 

Here are more examples: You can’t stop talking about this movie.  

You must have really liked it! I wonder why Melissa isn’t here.  

She might have had to work late. I just saw the dogs. They can’t have gone too far.

Number three, pronunciation. In  the final part of this lesson,  

we’ll discuss how native speakers usually  pronounce phrases with modal verbs in the past. 

Let’s go back to the phrase “His brother  must have cleaned the apartment”. Many times,  

we contract the word “have”. So we usually say  “His brother must’ve cleaned the apartment”. 

But there’s another way we say this  phrase: “His brother musta cleaned the  

apartment”. It’s very common to hear that  in movies, especially when people speak  

fast. The word “have” gets so reduced that it  becomes a schwa sound: uh. So we say “mus-tuh”.  

This is very common in American English. The same thing happens to the  

words “might” and “could”. “His brother might have cleaned  

the apartment” becomes “His brother might’ve  cleaned the apartment” which then becomes “His  

brother mighta cleaned the apartment” Let’s try it now with the word “could”:

“His brother could have cleaned the  apartment” becomes “His brother could’ve  

cleaned the apartment” which then becomes  “His brother coulda cleaned the apartment”

If you’re still watching, congratulations! You’ve  made it ‘till the end of the lesson. You are on  

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Now the bonus tip has to do with the word  “should” in the past. Do you remember the  

example at the beginning of the video? When you tell someone that they should  

have done something, you express that you  disapprove of something they did. In this example,  

our main character expresses frustration because  the other person didn’t tell him something.

We also use should have + participle to say that  we regret something. “To regret” means to feel bad  

about something that you did or didn’t do. Here are some examples: 

“I failed the exam because I didn’t  prepare for it. I should’ve studied more.” 

“I didn’t know it was going to rain so  much. I should’ve taken an umbrella.” 

Just like the other modal verbs, native  speakers also reduce “should've” to “shoulda”.

For example: “I shoulda studied more.” 

“I shoulda taken an umbrella.” So in this video you learned  

three advanced aspects of modal verbs. Do  you remember what these letters stand for?

That’s right. Deduction, Speculation  about the past and Pronunciation. 

If you enjoyed this lesson, make sure you share  it with a friend who’s also learning English.  

And if you are looking to keep learning,  I recommend you try this lesson next.  

I’ll see you in the next one!

In this lesson we'll learn how to apply  features of connected speech to our questions.  

Connected speech is how we cut and connect  our words so that we can make our speech flow  

more naturally. To illustrate this, I'll  say this sentence first without connected  

speech and then with connected speech. "I  went on a trip with a friend of mine..."