Modal verbs are preterite-present verbs, which means that their present tense has the form of a vocalic preterite. This is the source of the vowel alternation between singular and plural in German and Dutch. Because of their preterite origins, modal verbs also lack the suffix (-s in modern English, -t in German and Dutch) that would normally mark the third person singular form:
normal verb modal verb
English he works he can
German er arbeitet er kann
Dutch hij werkt hij kan
The main verb that is modified by the modal verb is in the infinitive form and is not preceded by the word to (German: zu, Dutch: te). There are verbs that may seem somewhat similar in meaning to modal verbs (e.g. like, want), but the construction with such verbs would be different:
normal verb modal verb
English he tries to work he can work
German er versucht zu arbeiten er kann arbeiten
Dutch hij probeert te werken hij kan werken
In English, main verbs require the auxiliary verb do to form negations or questions. Modal verbs never use this auxiliary do:
normal verb modal verb
affirmative he tries to work he can work
negation he doesn't try to work he can't work
question does he try to work? can he work?
negation + question doesn't he try to work? can't he work?
Modal verbs are called defective verbs because of their incomplete conjugation: they have a narrower range of functions than ordinary verbs.
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