Modal Verbs - part one

Modal verbs express ways of saying what we “have to”, “can”, “want to”, or “are allowed to” do

They work together with another verb to explain what it is that we “can” etc do.

Modal verbs:

1. are irregular in the present singular

2. have no ending after ic and er/sie/es

3. are regular in the plural

4. Send the second verb to the end of the sentence as an infinitive

e.g. Er muss heute abend seine Hausaufgaben machen - he must do his homework this evening

Ich kann in die Stadt gehen - I can go into town

The normal way of expressing modal verbs in the past is to use the imperfect form e.g er musste