modal

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modal auxiliary verb

A modal auxiliary verb, often simply called a modal verb or even just a modal, is used to change the meaning of other verbs (commonly known as main verbs) by expressing modality—that is, asserting (or denying) possibility, likelihood, ability, permission, obligation, or future intention.

Modal verbs are defined by their inability to conjugate for tense and the third person singular (i.e., they do not take an “-s” at the end when he, she, or it is the subject), and they cannot form infinitives, past participles, or present participles. All modal auxiliary verbs are followed by a main verb in its base form (the infinitive without to); they can never be followed by other modal verbs, lone auxiliary verbs, or nouns.

As with the primary auxiliary verbs, modal verbs can be used with not to create negative sentences, and they can all invert with the subject to create interrogative sentences.

modal

pertaining to mode, manner, or form; in music, based on a scale other than major or minor

Not to be confused with:

model – a standard or example for imitation; exemplary: a model prisoner; a miniature representation of something: a model train; a person or thing that serves as a subject for an artist

module – a separable component or self-contained segment of something else: an office module; a standard unit for measuring; in computers, a program or part that performs a distinct function

mod·al

(mōd′l)

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a mode.

2. Grammar Of, relating to, or expressing the mood of a verb.

3. Music Of, relating to, characteristic of, or composed in any of the modes typical of medieval church music.

4. Philosophy Of or relating to mode without referring to substance.

5. Logic Expressing or characterized by modality.

6. Statistics Of or relating to a statistical mode or modes.

See modal auxiliary.

[Medieval Latin modālis, from Latin modus, measure; see med- in Indo-European roots.]

mod′al·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

modal

(ˈməʊdəl)

adj

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of mode or manner

2. (Grammar) grammar (of a verb form or auxiliary verb) expressing a distinction of mood, such as that between possibility and actuality. The modal auxiliaries in English include can, could, may, must, need, ought, shall, should, will, and would

3. (Philosophy) philosophy logic

a. qualifying or expressing a qualification of the truth of some statement, for example, as necessary or contingent

b. relating to analogous qualifications such as that of rules as obligatory or permissive

4. (Logic) philosophy logic

a. qualifying or expressing a qualification of the truth of some statement, for example, as necessary or contingent

b. relating to analogous qualifications such as that of rules as obligatory or permissive

5. (Philosophy) metaphysics of or relating to the form of a thing as opposed to its attributes, substance, etc

6. (Music, other) music of or relating to a mode

7. (Statistics) of or relating to a statistical mode

ˈmodally adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mod•al

(ˈmoʊd l)

adj.

1. of or pertaining to mode, manner, or form.

2. of or pertaining to a musical mode.

3. of, pertaining to, or expressing the mood of a verb.

4. exhibiting or expressing some phase of logical modality.

5. modal auxiliary.

[1560–70; < Medieval Latin]

mod′al•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	modal - an auxiliary verb (such as `can' or `will') that is used to express modality modal auxiliary, modal auxiliary verb, modal verb auxiliary verb - a verb that combines with another verb in a verb phrase to help form tense, mood, voice, or condition of the verb it combines with
Adj.	1.	modal - relating to or constituting the most frequent value in a distribution; "the modal age at which American novelists reach their peak is 30" average statistics - a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters normal - conforming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type or social norm; not abnormal; "serve wine at normal room temperature"; "normal diplomatic relations"; "normal working hours"; "normal word order"; "normal curiosity"; "the normal course of events"
	2.	modal - of or relating to a musical mode; especially written in an ecclesiastical mode
	3.	modal - relating to or expressing the mood of a verb; "modal auxiliary"

Translations

modal

modale

modalen

modal

[ˈməʊdl] ADJ → modal

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

modal

adj → modal; modal verb → Modalverb nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

modal

[ˈməʊdl] adj → modale

References in periodicals archive ?

In these cases, weak coupling has been commonly assumed because of the low density of air and high stiffness of cabin wall, which means that the cavity's interior sound pressure would have little influence on the vibration of cavity wall, and modals of interior sound field would also be affected very lightly [5].

As mentioned above, 550 coupled modals have been obtained by involving 50 plate modals and 500 water sound field modals in modal coupling calculation, but only the first 11 coupled modal frequencies are presented.

Research on Power Flow Transmission through Elastic Structure into a Fluid-Filled Enclosure

Though, in past some attempts are made to eliminate impostors [14, 20-22], however, all these attempts have not given due consideration of different transform modals on which the reidentification images lie [23].

(i) Improving impostors resistance by jointly exploiting the transform modals [23], as well as impostor samples from both Probe and Gallery views;

Impostor Resilient Multimodal Metric Learning for Person Reidentification

Cases involving epistemic modals, present an interesting semantic challenge: in order to give a semantic treatment of epistemic modals, we must explain how informational states figure in the semantic representation of these terms.

Keywords: relativism; contextualism; epistemic modals; ignorant assessor; semantics; pragmatics

Do ignorant assessors cases pose a challenge to relativism about epistemic modals?

Contrary to single modals in which only one modal auxiliary can be added in a Standard English sentence, multiple modality is a series of two or three adjacent modal expressions in a vernacular English syntax.

Negated and Inverted Syntax of Modal Combinations in the Scottish Borders: Traditional Double Modals, Hybrid Double Modals and Exotic Triple Modals

(9), the natural frequencies of the whole structure are obtained and the main modals, frequency responses, and kinematics status expressed by generalized coordinate q, are also obtained.

Engine dynamic characteristics research based on experiment and computer numerical simulation

In other words, Modals allow the writer to grade his/her opinion and to acknowledge the possibility of other voices and opinions.

Modality in Kenya's 2008 post-consultation discourse

(MV 4.1.139-142) Two significant elements seem to be relevant here: modals (modality) and speech acts.

Modals, speech acts and (im)politeness: interactions in Shakespeare's plays

Cincinnati, OH, December 03, 2014 --(PR.com)-- The Modal Shop, Inc., a global calibration authority for more than 20 years, has revolutionized the verification of alarm thresholds on vibration protection systems that utilize proximity probes (Eddy current probes) with the release of its easy-to-use portable vibration calibrators with proximity probe mounting kit.

The Modal Shop, Inc. Redefines Proximity Probe Calibration

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