SUMMARY CHART OF MODALS AND SIMILAR EXPRESSIONS

AUXILIARY	USES	SENTENCES
may	1) polite request (only with I or we)	May I expand my bussiness facilities or purchase a new line of inventory with it?
	2) formal permission	Furthermore, as the signs may be addressed to one sense or another — to sight or to hearing
	3) less than 50% certainty	Yet nothing is more certain than that parties may be bound by a contract to things which neither of them intended
might	1) less than 50% certainty	A mix of rate increases and cuts in tax expenditures might be a sensible path
	2) polite request (rare)	Might I send the letter of payment tomorrow?
Should	1) advisability	that all costs should be included, including operating costs, including personnel, as the Auditor-General had recommended.
	2) 90% certainty (expectation)	that should have been: “costs related to contracted Sea King support, new infrastructure, Canadian Forces personnel, and ongoing operating costs.
Ought do	1) advisability	We ought to “redistribute” income to the poor, they say.
	2) 90% certainty (expectation)	We’re busy debating whether a multimillionaire like Mitt Romney ought to pay a few more percentage points in federal taxes.
had better	1) advisability with threat of bad result	. “You’ve had better economic news, an you’ve had better news out of Europe” said Scott Graham.
be supposed to	1) expectation	it was supposed to account for these, under Treasury Board rules, under the Auditor-General’s recommendation, and by its own publicly stated agreement with both
	2) unfulfilled expectation
Be to	1) strong expectation	government to be so confused that it would both apply and not apply the concept at the same time
Must	1) strong necessity	If you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man
	2) prohibition (negative)	A dynamic and successful Europe is not a one-size-fits-all kind of Europe and European integration must not become a goal in itself.
	3) 95% certainty	If it matters at all, still speaking from the bad man's point of view, it must be because in one case and not in the other some further disadvantages, or at least some further consequences, are attached to the act by law.
Have  to	1) necessity	How much of that $162 million the men will ultimately have to pay depends.
	2) lack of necessity (negative)	I take it for granted that no hearer of mine will misinterpret what I have to say as the language of cynicism.
have got to	1) necessity	We have got to work harder to reinforce each other’s recoveries.
Will	1) 100% certainty	Consumers are free to make decisions about which products they prefer to buy, and companies are free to decide what products and services will be provided
	2) willingness	Demand for them will remainhigh, and low borrowing costs will ease our fiscal problems.
	3) polite request
Be going to	1) 100% certainty	It’s going to be tempting to look at home price declines.
	2) definite plan	We thought it was going to be a second-half-of-the-year event.
Can	1) ability/possibility	it is likely to trigger a spike in world oil prices, because oil supplies to world markets will be reduced.
	2) informal permission
	3) informal polite request
	4) impossibility (negative only)	He would not know it was the standard, not only at Treasury Board, but across NATO.
could	1) past ability
	2) polite request
	3) suggestion (affirmative only)
	4) less than 50% certainty	And that there could becontinuing demand for riskier.
	5) impossibility (negative only)	Still, however strong Sheehan and Picard felt their case was, they could not be certain of victory.
Be able to	1) ability	At the other end of the scale, only one incumbent, President Roosevelt running in 1940, wasable to win despite substantial stock market losses
would	1) polite request	How would you rate the goverments performances performances in key economic areas?
	2) preference	Crude oil would still be more than five times as expensive as natural gas.
	3) repeated action in the past
Used to	1) repeated action in the past	Economic Tool Used to Aid Decision-Making Regarding the Distribution of Public Funds
	2) past situation that no longer Exists
Shall	1) polite question to make a Suggestion	Shall we buy them, as we buy the services of laundry workers, with money we earn doing things we do well?
	2) future with I or we as subject	We are studying what we shall want in order to appear before judges, or to advise people in such a way as to keep them out of court