questions with modal verbs – English Grammar Profiler

0 1

Let’s start with A1 grammar to explain how to form modal verb questions when asking for something.

Here is an affirmative declarative sentence:

I can get some help.

To form a yes/no question with a modal auxiliary verb,

  • invert the subject and the modal verb

I can → Can I 

  • follow it with the bare infinitive (Do not use to)

Can I get

  • add any other information IF needed for the verb OR to complete your meaning

Can I get some help over here

  • finish the sentence with a question mark

Can I get some help over here?

listen

modals questions examples

‘Can I get…?’ is one the most common modal yes/no questions.  To find the other most common modal verb + pronoun subject + lexical verb patterns we can search in the iWeb corpus with the following query:

_VM _P _VVI

*We have removed ‘can you‘ and ‘can we‘ because they are all listed at A1.

1 WOULD YOU LIKE 70753

A2 PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE:

Would you like to see that?

Japanese Female level 5 writing class

3 CAN I GET 46686
4 CAN I USE 35241

7 WOULD YOU SAY 21602

Present simple reporting verbs are listed at B1 in the English Grammar Profile. Therefore, we believe being able to combine them with the modal interrogative structure is B2 at least (there is no listing in the English Profile for this, so it might actually be C2)

There is a listing in the Longman dictionary:

I would say =  is used for giving your opinion even though other people may not agree

Therefore, the following is interrogating someone for their version of events:

Would you say that 

all three of you showed up around the same time?
No.

listen

8 WOULD YOU RECOMMEND 21421
9 WOULD YOU WANT 20527

10 CAN I FIND 20108

13 CAN I SAY 18033

14 SHOULD I USE 16188

Should I use that one?

listen

15 WILL IT TAKE 14456

How long will it take to get it back?

listen

17 CAN I MAKE 13354

20 WOULD YOU GIVE 12019

23 CAN ANYONE HELP 10935

Can anyone help me?

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25 SHOULD YOU NEED & 27 SHOULD YOU WISH 10043

These do not refer to questions.

They are examples of formal inversion in conditional clauses

when you are talking about things that might happen.

28 WOULD YOU DESCRIBE 9941 29 WILL I NEED 9194

30 CAN ANYONE TELL 8900

33 WILL I GET 8649 34 CAN I TAKE 8646

35 CAN I CHANGE 8478

37 SHOULD I SAY 8237 38 SHOULD I GO 7932 39 SHOULD I GET 7877 40 WOULD YOU MIND 7794 41 CAN I BUY 7744

42 COULD YOU TELL 7706 = *A2 polite request / indirect question

Could you tell me where the bathroom is, please?

Sideways

*This should be at least similar to indirect questions with ‘Do you know’ + ‘how’, ‘where’, ‘why’, or ‘what’

43 SHOULD YOU CHOOSE 7682 44 CAN I ASK 7636 45 WOULD YOU SUGGEST 7543 46 SHOULD I TAKE 7212

47 SHALL WE SAY 7162

Shall we say a few words about love?

Smiley Face

48 CAN I EXPECT 7055 49 WOULD YOU GO 6802 50 WOULD YOU USE 6770 51 WOULD YOU CONSIDER 6715 52 WOULD I WANT 6697 53 CAN I HELP 6670 54 WILL I RECEIVE 6627 55 WOULD I NEED 6546

56 CAN I TELL 6462

58 WOULD IT TAKE 6193
59 MAY I ASK 6144

May I ask what you are looking for?

listen

60 SHOULD I BUY 6127 64 WOULD YOU FEEL 5951

65 SHOULD YOU USE 5946

67 CAN I GO 5618

69 WOULD YOU CHOOSE 5555 70 CAN I APPLY 5463

71 WILL I KNOW 5461

73 WOULD YOU PREFER 5332 74 CAN I ADD 5283 75 WILL YOU NEED 5238 76 CAN I SEE 5154

77 WOULD YOU EXPECT 5063

80 COULD YOU GIVE 4844 81 SHOULD YOU DECIDE 4802

82 WOULD YOU BELIEVE 4767 (maybe B1)

Would you believe me if I said I didn’t know?

83 WOULD YOU KNOW 4728 87 WILL WE SEE 4532 88 WOULD YOU NEED 4526 89 CAN SOMEONE HELP 4517 90 WILL YOU GET 4472 91 WILL IT COST 4465 92 COULD YOU ASK 4455

93 SHOULD I EXPECT 4366

95 SHOULD YOU WANT 4191 96 MAY I SUGGEST 4083 97 CAN SOMEONE TELL 4042

99 WILL IT WORK 3972

NEED I SAY 2741 C2

RESEARCH NOTES

There are 3 overlapping A2 points in the English Grammar Profile related to modal verbs questions.  We have included their examples to elaborate on the modal verb range.

In the category of CLAUSES:

AFFIRMATIVE interrogative clauses (‘yes/no’ forms) with modal auxiliary verbs.

In the category of MODALITY:

question form ‘would you like‘

In the category of QUESTIONS :

increasing range of modal verbs + subject + main verb to form ‘yes/no’ questions

A2 Vocabulary:

add, anyone, believe, cost, could, decide, describe, explain, guess, mind, prefer, receive, shall, share, should, someone, wish B1:

apply, consider, expect, imagine, provide, recommend, suggest

Click here to see negative questions with modal verbs.