Modal verbs are my favorite verbs! But they can also be horrible and difficult.
So let's see how well you know them! Trust me, if you get all of these right then you
are the king or the queen of the modals! King of the modals. Queen of the modals.
Yeah... Like that! My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here is the ultimate modal verbs quiz!
Choose a suitable word for the space. When I was a child I _____ spend most of my time
watching SMASH English wishing I were Toby. Pause the video here.
The answer is WOULD. What is the function of WOULD in this sentence? Well we are using it to talk
about a past habit or routine. We are using it in a way very similar to USED TO. However there are
some differences between WOULD and USED TO. For example in general we do not use WOULD to describe
past states however we can do this with USED TO. But there are some exceptions to this rule! And
if you want to learn all about it then watch this video here! So much fun.... obviously. Love it.
Choose the correct answer. There may be more than one.
Toby is already so perfect he _____ improve any aspect of his character. Pause the video here.
There are actually three correct options here, so did you get all of them?
Did you!? Did you!? DOESN'T HAVE TO, DOESN'T NEED TO and NEEDN'T. All of these talk about
something that is not necessary. MUSN'T on the other hand is about prohibition.
If you mustn't do something then there is a rule that is telling you not to do it.
Please, please, please! For my sanity just remember that MUSTN'T and DON'T HAVE TO are
not the same. And I know you're thinking "Toby I know that!" but seriously, many students
even at the C1 level make this mistake and it drives me crazy! So no! Don't do it! Yes? Yes!
Put the verbs in brackets in the correct form to complete the sentence. I saw Monica
standing outside the cinema alone. I'm sure she thought Johnny was on his way to meet her.
She _____ for Johnny. Your verbs are MUST and WAIT. Pause the video here.
Let us think about all of the possible forms of MUST and WAIT. We could say she MUST WAIT
for Johnny. However this would refer to a present obligation and our sentence is referring to a past
observation so no. We could also say she MUST BE WAITING for Johnny. However this would be a
speculation about the present and our original sentence is talking about something that we
observed in the past. So instead we need to speculate about the past and this means we need
to say "Hello!" to my best friend the past modal of deduction! And yes! Grammar structures are my
friends! My only friends actually... So then we could say she MUST HAVE WAITED for Johnny.
However our original sentence was describing something that was in progress in the past and
this idea was expressed with the past continuous. This means we must use a past modal of deduction
in a continuous tense which gives us she MUST HAVE BEEN WAITING for Johnny. Oh that was brilliant! I
loved it! I had so much fun! And if you want to learn all about past modals of deduction then
right here! Video! You'll love it and I'll love you for loving it...
Choose the correct answer. There may be more than one. I have my C1 Advanced exam in one week!
Oh no you _____ watch every SMASH English video twice and donate all of your money to the channel.
Pause the video here.
The function here is to give advice. We can use SHOULD to give strong advice so we know
immediately that C is a possible answer. Now let's look at D the 'd the contraction here is
HAD. HAD BETTER. HAD BETTER means the same as SHOULD. If you had better do something it means
it is a good idea to do something. You should do something. So if C (should) is correct then
that means A (had better) must also be correct which leaves us with B (ought).
And OUGHT is definitely not correct. And that is because we must say OUGHT TO and OUGHT TO
means SHOULD but we cannot use OUGHT here because there is no TO and therefore B is wrong. Yes? Yes.
Choose a suitable word for the space. _______ he pass his Cambridge exam please
let me know in the comments. Pause the video here.
Now I bet you thought IF and then you saw the verb PASS instead of passes and you thought Toby! He
so stupid! He said pass instead of passes! But how dare you! In fact I am not stupid! You are stupid!
No, no, you're not stupid. This one is hard and if you get this correct then you are a genius!
The answer is SHOULD. Yeah, SHOULD. This is an inverted first conditional. When we invert the
first conditional we replace IF with SHOULD and the verb that we use must be the base form because
after a modal verb we always need the infinitive. So yeah, SHOULD. And of course if you want to
learn all about inverting conditionals then right here! It's really good. Trust me. It's great!
Choose the correct answer. There may be more than one.
I worked so hard and as a result I _____ pass my Cambridge exam! Pause the video here.
The answer cannot be CAN because our first clause is in the past simple which means we are talking
about a past situation and we use can for the present or the future. If our first clause were "I
have worked so hard" then CAN would be possible because we would be using the present perfect
to talk about an action in the past that has a relevance to the present. But it's not so don't
worry about it and I'm very sorry if that has just confused you. This leaves us with COULD
and WAS ABLE TO and the answer is WAS ABLE TO. But why, Toby!? Why!? Well we use COULD to refer
to a general past ability while we use WAS ABLE TO to refer to an ability at a specific moment
in the past. For example "When I was young I could swim very well" General past ability.
And so I was able to win a gold medal in that competition. Now we're talking about
a past ability on a specific occasion. So remember that COULD = general past ability.
WAS ABLE TO = specific past ability at a specific moment. Yes? Yes.
choose the correct answer. There may
be more than one. _____ I make a suggestion? Pause the video here.
And the answer is: all of them! Yes! We can use MAY, MIGHT and COULD to ask for permission.
However MIGHT is very very formal. In fact my granny uses MIGHT for permission. Might I make
a suggestion? So if you want to be like my granny then use MIGHT. If you don't want to be like my
granny then... Why not? She's a wonderful person, and how dare you criticize her in that way!
Choose the correct answer. There may be more than one. I _____ my cambridge exam
but I didn't find SMASH English in time. It's such a shame. Pause the video here.
We can eliminate D because we can be pretty sure that this person was not able to pass because it
was a shame and we have a concessive clause with BUT. We can eliminate C because COULD PASS would
refer to a general past ability but an exam is a specific moment or it could be referring to
a future possibility and neither of these make sense here. This leaves us with A and B. MUST
HAVE PASSED would be speculating about the past. It means the speaker is sure that they have passed
but they don't know yet and that doesn't make sense because again it was a shame and we have the
concessive clause with BUT. So no. So then what about A? Well COULD HAVE PASSED could be a past
modal of deduction. I could have passed my exam but I'm not sure... Maybe I did, maybe I didn't.
And that also doesn't really make sense. However we have another use of COULD plus HAVE plus PAST
PARTICIPLE and I'm going to tell you all about it right now. We can use COULD plus HAVE plus PAST
PARTICIPLE to talk about a past possibility that didn't occur. For example: I fell off my bike. I
could have died but I didn't. Or "Hey Toby! Why didn't you go to the party? Did she not invite
you?" "Of course she invited me! She absolutely loves me! I could have gone but I didn't want to.
Sorry!". So the answer is A. I could have passed my exam but I didn't find SMASH English on youtube
so I didn't. I failed and that's awful. No one should have to go through that... Oh my god...
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence
using the word given. Do not change the word given.
You must use between two and five words including the word given.
I cannot believe no one told you about SMASH English. No wonder you failed your exam! Your
keyword is HAVE. You ________ told about SMASH English before your exam! Pause the video here.
Oh god I'm sorry because this one is difficult. No one told this person about SMASH English in the
past and this is bad so we are trying to express a regret. To express a regret with a modal verb
we can use SHOULD plus HAVE plus the PAST PARTICIPLE. So someone SHOULD HAVE TOLD this
person about SMASH English but they didn't. But it gets even harder because this sentence
is in the passive. So, someone should have told this person about SMASH English becomes
"You SHOULD HAVE BEEN told about SMASH English". And yeah sorry. If you got that right
well done well done indeed! Now if you got all of those correct then you're a genius.
Fantastic! Well done you. And you've wasted 15 minutes of your time. If you got some of them
wrong then congratulations! Because you've learned something! And we love learning. And if you got
all of them wrong and you haven't learnt anything then also I've wasted 15 minutes of your time and
I apologize. And with that we are finished that was the ultimate quiz about modal verbs and boy
oh boy I had so much fun! If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe
if you haven't already, leave a comment down below! My name is Toby and this was SMASH English.