Modal verbs have a wide variety of communicative functions, but these functions can generally be related to a scale ranging from possibility ("may") to necessity ("must"), in terms of one of the following types of modality: The following sentences illustrate epistemic and deontic uses of the English modal verb must: An ambiguous case is You must speak Spanish.
Two typical sequences of evolution of modal meanings are: The following table lists English modal verbs and various senses in which they are used: Hawaiian Pidgin is a creole language most of whose vocabulary, but not grammar, is drawn from English.
[citation needed] There are various preverbal modal auxiliaries: Kaen "can", laik "want to", gata "have got to", haeftu "have to", baeta "had better", sapostu "am/is/are supposed to".
Unlike in Germanic languages, tense markers are used, albeit infrequently, before modals: Gon kaen kam "is going to be able to come".
38–39 Pono conveys obligation/necessity as in He pono i nā kamali'i a pau e maka'ala, "It's right for children all to beware", "All children should/must beware"; ability is conveyed by hiki as in Ua hiki i keia kamali'i ke heluhelu "Has enabled to this child to read", "This child can read".
French, like some other Romance languages, does not have a grammatically distinct class of modal auxiliary verbs and expresses modality using lexical verbs followed by infinitives: for example, pouvoir "to be able" (Je peux aller, "I can go"), devoir "to have an obligation" (Je dois aller, "I must go"), and vouloir "to want" (Je veux aller "I want to go").
There are in total four modal verbs in Italian: potere ("can"), volere ("want"), dovere ("must"), sapere ("to be able to").
For example, the helping verb for the perfect of potere ("can") is avere ("have"), as in ho potuto (lit.
"I-have visited the castle") / ho potuto visitare il castello (lit.