Modal verbs in songs

   MIGHT. We might as well be strangers. Keane

 MUST. The show must go on. Queen

OUGHT TO. Oughtta Know. Alanis Morrisette.

 SHOULD. Should I stay or should I go? The Clash

COULD. You could be happy. Snow Patrol

CAN. Can you meet me halfway? Black Eyed Peas

Several modal verbs. In my Place. Coldplay.

Modal perfect. It must have been love. Roxette

MUST + Inf. it must be love. Madness

Modals and modal perfect verbs

MODAL VERBS Los Verbos Modales

MODAL	EXAMPLES	USES
CAN	He can find any street in London. You can take a taxi. Can you take me to Victoria Station?	Ability Suggestion Request
BE ABLE TO	He is able to find any street in London.	Ability
CAN ́T	That story can ́t be true.	Certainty that something is impossible
COULD	I could play tennis when I was younger. Could you take me to Victoria Station?. You could take a taxi.	Ability Request Suggestion
MAY	It may be quicker to travel by train. May I come in?.	Possibility Formal request
MIGHT	It might be quicker to travel by train.	Possibility
MUST	You must be back at 10 o ́clock. Look at the snow. It must be cold outside.	Obligation Certainty that something is true
HAVE TO	You have to be back at 10 o ́clock.	Obligation
NEED TO	You need to study a lot.	Obligation
NEEDN ́T	You needn ́t have a university degree.	Lack of obligation
MUSTN ́T	You mustn ́t drive without a licence.	Prohibition
DON ́T HAVE TO	You don ́t have to call a taxi.	Lack of obligation
SHOULD	You should drive more carefully	Opinion / Advice
OUGHT TO	You ought to drive more carefully	Opinion / Advice

CARACTERÍSTICAS DE ESTOS VERBOS:
No llevan -s en la tercera persona del singular del presente simple.
No necesitan -do o -does para formar la negativa ni la interrogativa.
Nunca llevan infinitivo con to detrás, excepto be able to, need to, have to y ought to.. No tienen infinitivo, participio ni tiempos compuestos.
NOTA: Los verbos have to y need to también se consideran “verbos semimodales” porque no cumplen todas las características propias de los verbos modales.

CAN / BE ABLE TO
CAN se auxilia de be able to en los tiempos de que carece, y tiene muchos usos:
a) Para expresar habilidad o capacidad: “saber”, “poder”.
b) Con acciones que empiezan en el pasado pero todavía tienen continuidad en el presente. c) Para hacer peticiones, dar y pedir permiso de manera informal.
d) Para indicar posibilidad:
We can do that later. (Podemos hacer eso luego). En negativa tiene, además de estos, otros dos usos:
e) Para expresar deducción. f ) Para indicar prohibición.
You can ́t smoke here. (No puedes fumar aquí).
BE ABLE TO también indica habilidad y posibilidad como can, pero en los tiempos que le faltan
a este verbo modal.
Will you be able to do it before six o ́clock?. (¿Podrás hacerlo antes de las 6?)
COULD
a) Se usa para expresar habilidad y capacidad en el pasado.
b) Para hacer peticiones o pedir un favor de manera más formal que con can.
c) Para hacer sugerencias.
d) Para indicar posibilidad, pero dando a entender que es más remota que si usamos can.
We could go on friday afternoon.. (Podríamos ir el viernes por la tarde).
MAY / MIGHT
a) Ambos verbos expresan la posibilidad de que algo ocurra en el presente o en el futuro, sin ser seguro. Como hemos visto antes, can también expresa posibilidad pero denota que las circunstancias reales lo permiten.
b) May también se utiliza para pedir y dar permiso de una forma más educada que con can. 

MUST / HAVE TO
Must sólo tiene presente, así que para el resto de los tiempos se usa have to.
a) Los dos verbos expresan necesidad y obligación, pero con must la necesidad es más fuerte.
Cuando queremos suavizar la frase utilizamos have to.
You must take a decision as soon as possible. (Debes tomar una decisión lo antes posible) She has to work tomorrow. (Tiene que trabajar mañana)
b) Must sirve para expresar una conclusión lógica.
NEED TO / NEEDN ́T
a) Need to expresa obligación o necesidad.
b) Needn ́t indica ausencia de obligación o necesidad.
MUSTN ́T / DON ́T HAVE TO
a) Mustn ́t indica prohibición.
b) Don ́t have to tiene un valor totalmente distinto pues significa ausencia de necesidad, igual
que needn ́t.
You don ́t have to wash the dishes. (No tienes por qué lavar los platos / no es necesario).
SHOULD / OUGHT TO
a) Se pueden utilizar indistintamente para dar consejos y hacer recomendaciones, aunque should es mucho más frecuente. Ought to apenas se usa en negativa e interrogativa.

        MODAL PERFECTS
Los Verbos Modales Perfectos

MODAL	EXAMPLES	USES
MUST HAVE	The driver must have lost his way.	A certainty or logical conclusion about an event in the past.
MIGHT / MAY HAVE	She might / may have bought a new car.	A guess about something which happened in the past.
COULD HAVE	You could have avoided that accident.	The ability to do something in the past, but which in the end was not done.
COULDN ́T HAVE	He couldn ́t have known about the problem.	A certainty that something did not happen.
SHOULD HAVE	He should have listened to me. They should have won the competition.	Advice which was not followed in the past. Expectations which were not fulfilled in the past.
SHOULDN ́T HAVE	You shouldn ́t have gone on foot.	Criticism that was given after an event.

Must have + participio
Se usa para expresar certeza o una conclusión lógica sobre un hecho pasado.
Might / May have + participio
Se usa para hacer una predicción sobre algo pasado.
Could have + participio
Indica que hubo la posibilidad de haber hecho algo en el pasado pero que finalmente no se hizo.
Couldn ́t have + participio
En negativa expresa la imposibilidad de que el hecho enunciado se realizara.
Should have + participio
Se usa para lamentar que algo no ocurriera en el pasado y que no se haya cumplido lo que esperábamos.
Shouldn ́t have + participio
Con este modal expresamos nuestra opinión crítica sobre un hecho pasado indicando que no debería haber ocurrido. 



And now, a couple of pageswith lots of exercises to practise:

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/modal-verbs-exercises.html

http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalforms.html

Gerunds and infinitives

Gerunds and infinitives 

Partying with the periodic table elements

Dedicared to my 3rd ESO and 1st Bach.
Have a look at this funny way to learn.

And this other one as well.

Songs and conditionals

http://www.teachthemenglish.com/2015/01/4-songs-for-teaching-the-4-english-conditionals/

An excellent post to learn conditionals with songs.

4 Songs for Teaching the 4 English Conditionals

When we think about all of the grammar points that we have to teach, what would you say is the one that you dread most?

Now, I’m sure there are those among you who’ll say it’s the passive voice, while there are others out there who’ll swear it’s modal verbs. However, I’m willing to be that most of you are just like me in always having to draw a deep breath when the time comes to deal with the many weird and wonderful conditional sentences.

Let’s face it, the challenges of dealing with the form of each of the four main conditionals is nightmare enough (something is, something will be, something would be, something would have been), never mind getting on to the somewhat subtle differences in function from one conditional to the next (I attempt to deal with some of the trickiest things in the follow up to this post).

After many years of trawling through conditionals-focused grammar lessons, I’ve come up with quite a list of ways not to go about it! These aren’t the focus of today’s post, though. One extremely painless, fun and motivating way of ‘doing’ conditionals is through music. For this post, I’m delighted to be joined by Paul Mains from Language Trainers Online. Here are some suggested songs for presenting each of the four conditionals, one suggestion from me and one from Paul for each type (no, we’re not dealing with mixed conditionals today, sorry!).

Paul’s Zero Conditional: ‘Rain’ by The Beatles

The Beatles are one of my favorite bands for teaching English, as they sing slowly and clearly, and produce catchy melodies that students will remember (and regardless — they’re The Beatles!). The song Rain, in particular, is great for teaching the zero conditional, which describes general truths and scientific facts. (Note: if you’re wondering what they sing in the last line of the song, it’s simply “If the rain comes they run and hide their heads” played in reverse.)

Adam’s Zero Conditional: ‘Everytime’ by Britney Spears

She may no longer be the queen of pop, but dear Britney still has many uses in the language classroom, and exemplifying the zero conditional is one of them!

The form: We construct the zero conditional like this: if + simple present, simple present

“If we heat water, it boils.”

“When a tree crashes to the ground, does it make a sound if no one is around to hear it?”

Adam’s lyrics to analyze:

• Every time I try to fly / I fall
• Every time I see you in my dreams / I see your face

Paul’s lyrics to analyze:

• If the rain comes / they run and hide their heads
• When the sun shines / they slip into the shade

Adam’s First Conditional: ‘Time after Time’ by Cyndi Lauper

This is probably one of the most iconic tunes of the 80s, with unforgettable lyrics that make it perfect for teaching the first conditional, which expresses future events that have a decent chance of occurring.

Paul’s First Conditional: ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’ by Simply Red

An emblematic song of the 80s, the bluesy tune of If You Don’t Know Me By Now is catchy and memorable. And it has a conditional form in its very title, so it should be clear why it’s ideal for teaching the first conditional, which expresses future events that are likely to happen. It’s also good for teaching some idiomatic expressions of time, such as “by now” and “never ever”.

The form: We form the first conditional like this: if + simple present, will + main verb. (the notion of futurity can also be expressed using ‘be going to’)

“If it rains, I won’t go shopping.”

“If the train comes late, we’re going to miss our connection.”

Adam’s lyrics to analyze:

• If you’re lost / You can look and you will find me

Paul’s lyrics to analyze:

•  If you don’t know me by now / You will never ever know me

If you’re enjoying this post, you might also want to take a look at my follow up; 4 songs for dealing with tricky conditional structures.

Adam’s Second Conditional: ‘One of us’ by Joan Osborne

This is an absolute classic from the 1990s and really takes me back to my early twenties! What’s more, this is a good song to use when teaching the second conditional, which is the conditional we use to talk about hypothetical or near-impossible situations.

Paul’s Second Conditional: ‘If I were a boy’ by Beyonce

Who wouldn’t want an excuse to listen to Beyoncé during class? Her recent hit, If I Were a Boy, was so popular that it was officially produced and recorded in a Spanish-language version. Incidentally, it’s also a perfect song to teach the second conditional, which, as Adam noted, is used to talk about hypothetical or impossible situations.

The form: We construct the second conditional like this: if + simple past, would + base verb. (“would” is often shortened to a contraction, such as I’d or she’d. Other modal verbs, such as could and should can take its place, too.)

If I won the lottery, I would buy a Ferrari and a yacht.

Adam’s lyrics to analyze:

• If God had a name, what would it be?
• If God had a face, what would it look like?

Paul’s lyrics to analyze:

• If I were a boy even just for a day / I’d roll out of bed in the morning
• If I were a boy / I swear I’d be a better man
• If I were a boy / I would turn off my phone
  

Adam’s Third Conditional: ‘If it hadn’t been for love’ by Adele

The third conditional is every teacher’s nightmare to teach, as it involves  three auxiliary verbs, and is thus incredibly difficult for language learners. Fortunately, Adele is here to rescue us. This conditional seems so well suited to a lot of Adele’s musical catalog, as it focuses on situations that are impossible to change because they’ve already happened; despite what we may wish, we cannot change the past.

Paul’s Third Conditional: ‘Come back, be here’ by Taylor Swift

The third conditional: the grandaddy of all conditional constructions. Indeed, the “regret conditional” deals with situations that are impossible because they’ve already happened, and alas, we cannot change the past. It involves a total of three auxiliary verbs, and is thus notoriously difficult for language learners. And for that reason, Taylor Swift’s light, gentle voice is a perfect way to lessen the blow.

The form: We construct the third conditional like this: if + had + past participle, would + have + past participle. (“would” and “have” are often shortened to a contraction, such as ‘I would’ve’. The can also be replaced by other modals.)

“If I had seen him today, I could have told her.”

“If she had studied, she wouldn’t have failed that exam.”

Adam’s lyrics to analyze:

• I never would have hitchhiked to Birmingham / If it hadn’t been for love
• I would have been gone like a wayward wind / If it hadn’t been for love

Paul’s lyrics to analyze:

• If I had known what I know now / I never would’ve played so nonchalant.