250 Part IV: The Grammar You Need to Know – and How to Teach It
Of course there are other ways to use will, which aren’t really focused on the
future. You can use will for decisions you make at the moment of speaking.
Take this sentence for example: You relax and I’ll answer the door this time.
The action of answering the door is really present, not future, but it’s a spon-
taneous decision, not something planned in advance. By comparison, saying
‘I’m going to’ sounds a bit more planned.
On the other hand, the same sentence without the contraction (‘I will answer’
instead of ‘I’ll answer’) can indicate that the speaker is really determined or
is making a promise.
Giving and gaining permission
Sometimes you need to say whether it’s okay to do something or not. In this
case you quite likely use can or may and could if you’re asking a question.
‘May’ sounds a little more formal than the other two.
Could/may I use your bathroom?
Of course you can.
Offering
In English there are various ways of offering something; using would is one of
them, as in: Would you like a cup of tea?
Or if you’re using ‘I’ or ‘we’ you can use shall instead: Shall I/we make you a
cup of tea?
Talking about ability
When you want to say whether or not you’re able to do something, you use
can or could. The difference between the two is that could also refers to
things you were able to do in the past. In this sentence for example could
and cannot reflect ability at different stages of life, childhood and the present
day respectively: I could speak my father’s language at the age of four but I
cannot really remember it now.
Expressing degrees of obligation
Various modal verbs indicate whether you really must do something or
whether you have a choice of doing it or not. For a very strong obligation you
use must: You mustn’t smoke here. It’s forbidden.
Have to is synonymous with must in positive sentences except that you tend
to use have to when someone else’s authority is involved: ‘The boss says you
have to stop that now.’
