Modals Auxiliary Verbs

Modals auxiliary verbs are a very complex area of English grammar, so in this quick guide we will not be able to go into much detail, but we will at least get an overall idea of what their function is in a sentence. In an earlier section of this guide we looked at how the verb phrase can be broken down into its constituent parts and we noted that one of these parts was called a modal auxiliary verb

Modal auxiliary adalah sekelompok kata bantu yang merupakan bagian dari auxiliary yang memberikan tambahan arti pada suatu kalimat. Modal auxiliary antara lain:

Present Tense:

Can, may, will, shall, must, need, ought to, dare

Past Tense:

Could, might, should

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Aturan penggunaan modal auxiliary:

1. Kata kerja tidak boleh ditambah dengan –s/es, jika terdapat modal auxiliary.

• He can makes a fruit cake. (salah)
• He can make a fruit cake. (benar)
• Katty must goes to her office right now. (salah)
• Katty must go to her office right now. (benar)

2. Antara kata modal auxiliary dengan kata kerja tidak boleh dihubungkan dengan “to”

• They can to take this paper to that room. (salah)
• They can take this paper to that room. (benar)

3. Jika modal auxiliary bentuk lampau maka kata kerja yang digunakan harus kata kerja bentuk pertama (infinitive).

• They could sang at the karaoke until midnight. (salah)
• They could sing at the karaoke until midnight. (benar)

4. Kalimat tanya (interrogative sentence) dibentuk dengan menempatkan modal auxiliary di depan kalimat.

• Can your father speak English well?
• Could you contact him last night?

5. Kalimat menyangkal (negative sentence) dibentuk dengan menambahkan not sesudah modal auxiliary.

Would, must, can, need, could, should, dengan not sering ditulis dalam bentuk singkat (contraction form), yaitu shouldn’t, can’t, couldn’t, mustn’t, wouldn’t dan needn’t.

will dan would biasanya disingkat menjadi ‘ll dan ‘d.

• She’ll call him back after dinner.

Jika shall not dan will not ditulis dalam bentuk singkat menjadi shan’t” dan “won’t.

• Mother won’t give the money unless you beg her to give you some money
• Mother shan’t give the money unless you beg her to give you some money

Jika can dan not tidak ditulis dan bentuk singkat (contraction form), can not dijadikan satu kata, yaitu cannot.

Untuk membentuk question taq, modal auxiliary ditempatkan di belakang kalimat.

• Jessica can study the math, can’t she?
• You could see him last night, couldn’t you?