Intermediate Grammar – Questions and requests with modal verbs

Hyvää huomenta,

(that’s “Good morning” in Finnish).

The following lesson is for intermediate students. If you are not sure of your English level, take our test!

You can find all this information, plus speaking, writing, vocabulary exercises and more on the ABA English Course Unit 53 – Fashion Café.

Do you have pen and paper?

Let’s start…

Offering help

Imagine you walk into a shop. What will the shop assistant ask you? Exactly: “CanI help you?“. This is the most common way of offering help.

However, if you enter a very expensive shop, then the assistant might say: “May I help you?“.

Both mean the same thing, the only difference is that “may” is more formal than “can”.

Examples: 

“Can I offer you some orange juice?”

“Can I take you to school in my car?”

Requests with “to have”

When you need or want something, you can use the modal verbs “can”, “could” or “may” followed by the verb “to have”. Remember that we use “can” in informal situations, such as with friends and family. “Could” and “may” are used in more formal situations, with your boss or during a meeting.

Examples: 

“Can I have some more chicken, Mom?”

“Can I have two Coke’s and a burger, please?”

“Could I have some more coffee?”

“Could I have the wine, please?”

“May I have the bill, please?”

Asking for information with “can”

Knowing how to ask for information is very useful and easy. All you need to do is put a question word before “can”.

Examples:

“Where can I find a shoe shop?”

“What time can you come?”

“Who can be calling so late?”

“How much can I spend?”

“What can I say?”

“Where can she take the bus?”

Unit 53 – Fashion Café

Well done! You just revised the grammar from Unit 53!

In Unit 53 – Fashion Café, you will meet a tourist and a policeman. Listen to the policeman give the tourist explanations on how to get to the Fashion Café.

By watching ABA Films, you will practice your listening comprehension. Record your voice and compare phrases to improve your pronunciation and gain fluency by interpreting different roles. You will also learn new vocabulary and review the unit’s grammar lesson.

Did you enjoy this class? TWEET IT OUT: I reviewed how to use modal verbs to make questions and requests with @abaenglish on their blog #esl