Modal word
Modal words are words in a language that express modality, i.e., possibility, necessity, or contingency. One kind of modal word is the modal verb (should, can, might, and ought).[1] Other types of modal words in English include modal adjectives (likely, probable, necessary), modal adverbs (probably, perhaps, certainly), modal prepositions (despite, unless, if), and modal nouns (possibility, probability, certainty).
References
- ^ Matthews, Peter (2003). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.