Vouloir et pouvoir séparent ce qui s'assume de ce qui se vante

Introduction

Modalization is the process by which speakers express their attitudes towards what they say to their interlocutors, from necessity or obligation to possibility or permission.

Modal elements are not exclusively verbs. They can also be:

1. – adverbs (e.g. probablement, peut-être, sans doute, selon moi, à mon avis, d'après lui, incontestablement, de toute évidence)

2. – adjectives (e.g. possible, probable, éventuel, certain)

3. – quotations (in order for the speaker to distance him/herself from the words which the person quoted is using)

4. – tenses (e.g. some uses of the imperfect)

The basic modal verbs are devoir and pouvoir, to which vouloir can be added; savoir and connaître can also be considered as modals (these are treated in a separate chapter, 22, owing to the problems which they present for the English-speaker).

Problems occur with these ‘modals’ (also called ‘semi-auxiliaries’) because:

1. – they can take on different meanings depending on the tense or even person used, and on whether the sentence is affirmative or negative

2. – the same verb in the same tense can have several meanings, determined only by context

3. – there is no one-to-one correspondence between French modals and the English would, could, should, ought to, etc.

This chapter examines the meanings of the three main French modals. This is followed by a brief review of English modals and the way in which they are translated into French.

devoir

1. (i) When devoir is followed by a noun, it means avoir une dette (to owe sth to sb).