Modals 2 - B2

Permission; requests; offers; suggestions; orders; advice

You are going to hear a girl called Sophie asking her mother to do five things for her.

What do you think Sophie might ask?

Listen and write Sophie’s questions.

Were any of your guesses right?

Listen again and put (YES) if Sophie’s mother agrees to do

something and (NO) if she doesn’t agree.

Her mother agrees (YES) or doesn’t agree (NO)

Listen again. Sophie asks her mother two things for a second time at the end of the conversation. What does she say? Why does she ask differently the second time?

We can ask for permission by saying Can I? Could I? or May I?:

Can I leave my bag here while I look round the museum? (= a simple request which expects the answer yes)

Could I borrow your car for a few days? (= more polite or a request which is less sure of the answer being yes)

May I sit here? (= a more formal request, particularly to a stranger)

We usually answer by saying:

Of course (you can).

OK. / Certainly.

I’m afraid not. (= polite)

No, you can’t. (= not very polite)

May is often used in written notices to say what is or is not allowed:

You may borrow six books from the library.

You may not keep any book for longer than three weeks.

We use...

We often use Can you? or Will you?

especially in informal conversation:

Can you pass me the bread?

Will you get me some stamps from the post office?

To be more polite, we use Could you? and Would you?:

Could you tell me where the station is?

Would you lend me your camera?

We usually answer by saying:

(Yes) of course (I can/will). or OK. or Maybe.

I’m sorry, I’m afraid I can’t.

(not No, I won’t, which sounds rude)

We often use Do you think you could? to make requests:

Do you think you could move your things off the table?

(not Do you think you can?)

We never use May you? to ask someone to do something.

(not May you give me a lift?)

We use Would you mind (not) -ing? when we want to be very polite:

Would you mind moving to another seat?

Would you mind not talking so loudly?

The reply to a question with Would you mind? is negative:

Not at all. (= I don’t mind moving to another seat. / We don’t mind talking more quietly.)

There are several ways of offering help to someone:

Can I/we help you to cook dinner?

Shall I/we clean the car for you?

I can / I could / I’ll lend you some money.

Why don’t I carry that bag for you?

Would you like me to do the washing up?

To make a suggestion, we can use all the following expressions:

Let’s drive to the city centre today.

Shall I/we Why don’t I/we/you drive to the city centre today?

How about /What about driving to the city centre today?

If we are less sure of what we are suggesting, we can say:

I/We/You could drive to the city centre today.

You really must start looking for a job. (= an order – I am telling you to do this, or this is my opinion which I feel very strongly about)

You’d better start looking for a job. (= advice – otherwise you may regret it)

You should / ought to start looking for a job. (= advice)

You could start looking for a job. (= this is only a suggestion)

For the negative we normally use had better not or shouldn’t. Ought not to is also possible but less common:

You’d better not forget to send that application form.

You shouldn’t / ought not to wear those clothes for the interview.

To talk about the past we say:

You should have / ought to have accepted that job. (= it was a good idea to accept it but you didn’t)

We can use all these verbs to talk about the right thing to do:

I must try harder not to be late.

She should / ought to be more thoughtful.

He’d better go and say sorry.

I’d better not upset her today.

They shouldn’t / ought not to talk so much.

To talk about the right thing to do in the past we say:

They shouldn’t have talked so much.