Modal Will's little brother

The surprising thing about this grammar is how difficult it is to find good examples of the ‘neutral’ future. And the absence of good examples speaks volumes about how we prefer other ways to communicate how we view the future.

There are two keys to understanding ‘neutral will’. First, we only use it when there’s no ambivalence with ‘modal will’. Secondly, we use it when there is no aspect (rare) and when the aspect is carried by another verb or adverb (common).

In the end the use of ‘neutral will’ is conventional, in the sense that it’s typically employed in certain, very circumscribed situations. So the best way to learn it is simply to list the structures in which it’s naturally used, e.g. after ‘to think’.

There are facts and there is what we think about facts

All modal verbs can be used to express deduction. That is, when we express what we think we know, as opposed to what we know.

And they behave differently. They have continuous, passive and past forms that are constructed with the continuous infinitive (be doing), passive infinitive (be done) and perfect infinitive (have done). These forms are notably different to standard constructions.

For example, the standard past of he can’t do is he couldn’t do but the deductive version is he couldn’t have done.

Notice that there is not much distinction between ‘may’ and ‘might’ for possibility, which usually look into the future—it may/might rain later—and the same verbs for deduction, which generally refer to the present—he may/might be at home.

Both ‘may’ and ‘might’ are used for past deduction: the butler may/might have killed her (i.e. perhaps the butler killed her). But only ‘might’ is used for the unreal past: you might have killed yourself (i.e. you didn’t kill yourself, but you took a terrible risk).

Possibility in the present and future

Possibility is another concept that we express using modal verbs.

Personal and impersonal obligation, absence of obligation, and weak obligation

We use ‘must’, ‘have to’, and ‘should’ to communicate obligation. There are important lessons in the difference in form between ‘must’ and the non-modal ‘have to’. The difference in meaning between these verbs varies according to whether the verb is positive, negative or interrogative.

Expressing willingness

Modal Will is a present tense modal verb that isn’t (normally) translated in Italian. This presentation explains that the concept exists even if a specific translation doesn’t.

The saxon half of English grammar

The modal system in English is unashamedly Saxon. They exist for interpersonal interaction, leaving the management of facts to the indicative tense system, which owes much more to Latin languages.