can-may-must

Exercises:

• Put the modal verbs into the tenses I
• Put the modal verbs into the tenses II

Test yourself

can-may-must - Test yourself

Basic Rules

can, may, must sind Hilfsverben!

Das bedeutet:

• kein -s in der 3. Person Singular
• keine Umschreibung mit "to do" in Fragen und verneinten Sätzen notwendig (Can you help me? ABER Do you like me?)

Man kann mit can, may must nicht alle Zeiten bilden!

Ersatzformen:

• can ==> to be able to, ==> we were able to
• must ==> to have to ==> they had to do their homework
• may ==> to be allowed to ==> I was allowed to stay up.

Erlaubnis/Verbot = permission

• can / cannot ==> You cannot go to the party
• may / may not ==> we may not be loud ==> we were not allowed to be loud
• must not ==> you must not Du DARFST nicht (Nur in Gegenwart!) ==> Past Tense: You were not allowed to ....!

Fähigkeit = ability

• can / cannot ==> I cannot sing ==> I wasn't able to sing. / They weren't able to sing.

Verplichtung = obligation

• must ==> You must go ==> You had to go ==> you will have to go

Achtung: You must not ==> Du darfst nicht!

ALSO: Du musst nicht ==> Ersatzform "have to" notwendig! have ist ein Vollverb! ==> you don't have to = Du musst nicht!