【大纪元2011年05月28日讯】在英语中常用情态动词有will， would， shall， should， may， might， must， can以及 could总计9个；同样，英语中还有很多被称之为“半情态动词”的动词词组，例如：ought to，have to，had better等等。虽然数量不多，但是学起来总是会觉得不得要领，原因是这些情态动词每个都有很多的含义和用法。下面我们来谈谈情态动词在日常交流中的应用。
很多同学都知道，有时候一个情态动词的过去式却是另外一个情态动词的原型。比如：will的过去式是would；can的过去式是could。而在现代英语中人们常常把must的过去式用作had to。尽管大多数同学都知道这些情态动词的变形和写法，但是却不明白这些情态动词到底意思上有什么差别。其实，在现实生活中人们喜欢用过去式来表示友好的语气，这也是英语中常用的表达形式。比如以下两个例句中例句一听起来比例句二要友好很多。
例一： Could I borrow your pen？
例二：Can I borrow your pen？
其实这些情态动词中给人感觉最友好的是“May”，这就是为什么你每次去商场或者是餐厅服务员总是用“May I help you？”来和您打招呼了。就像这些例子说明的一样，通常说话的人在某种场合中希望表达友好的感情会用这些情态动词。但是，如果你想和朋友借一支笔，你用“May I borrow your pen？”听起来就有点太夸张了。因为“May”通常被用于表示对对话者的礼貌和尊重。
在对话中如果用错了情态动词或者半情态动词会让对方觉得说话的人说话太夸张甚至有时候会觉得粗鲁。比如：“had better”这个半情态动词，意思与“should”及其相似，但是细细推敲来说还是存在着一些微妙的差异的。“should”在某种程度上来说具有给出建议的趋势，而“had better”虽然也有给出建议的趋势，但是这个词更严重一些，如果别人没有按照这个建议去做某个事情将会有很坏的结果产生，也就是说除了这个建议没有更好的了。如果你用“had better”和别人提出建议，某种程度上来说你是在和别人提出警告。
记得有一次我去我经常光顾的汽车修理铺修车，修车的师傅是个中国人，当我和他说我的车停放的位置的时候他就用了“had better”这个词来建议我把车停在别的地方，他说：“You had better park over there”。听起来我好像犯了很大的错误，但是很快我意识到他仅仅是用错了情态动词。如果这个事情发生在别人身上可能会被误会为说话的人比较粗鲁，会给别人留下不好的印象。作为母语为英文的人来理解，如果我不把车按照他的意思来停放，会给我带来意想不到的后果，也许是一张警察的罚单或者某人会因此愤怒。这样的建议听起来更像是命令。这句话更好的表达方式应该为“Could you park behind the garage?”，当然少不了后面再适当的解释说明一下原因，避免客户误会。当然，如果你想对你的客户更礼貌一些的话你可以说“If you don’t mind, perhaps you could park behind the garage.”。
了解了以上的一些细微差异，那么到底什么时候用“had better”呢？如果主语是“I”或者“we”的时候通常用“had better”比较多。比如例句三和例句四听起来还是比较舒服的。
例三：I had better hurry.” (意思为：我快要迟到了)
例四：We had better hurry.” (意思为：我们快要迟到了)
再来看看例句五，如果用这种方式和不熟悉的人交谈，听起来语气就有点强硬了。
例五：You had better hurry。（意思为：你会迟到的）
也许你说完这句话的同时对方在想：“我迟不迟到和你有什么关系！”。
迈克（Mike Tiittanen）是应用语言学博士，从1993年开始致力于成人“英语第二语言”
（ESL）的教学工作，同时他还兼任多伦多Seneca社区学院针对教师的培训项目（TESL）的讲师，是一位资深的英语语言专家。曾经著有两本关于英语教学的书籍并被采纳为“英语第二语言”教学的标准教材。更多英语学习资料请访问：http://doctormikeenglishcenter.wordpress.com/
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The possible social implications of some modal verbs
Many ESL learners find English modal verbs difficult to learn. First of all, I should list the modal verbs of English. The pure modal verbs are the following:
will, would, shall, should, may, might, must, can, and could. Given that there are so few modal verbs, why are they so difficult for adult ESL learners to learn? The reason is that these verbs have several different meanings. In addition, there are also semi-modal verbs in English (e.g. – ought to, have to, had better etc …) with different meanings as well.
As many English learners know, one difference between some modal verbs is that one modal verb is the present tense form and another modal verb is the past tense form of the same verb. For example, the past tense of “will” is “would”. In addition, the past tense of “can” is “could”. The only other modal verb with a past tense form (in contemporary English) is “must”. The past tense of “must” is “had to”.
Although the above differences between modal verbs are known by many English learners, many learners do not know about the many other differences in meaning between modal verbs. Some of these differences are relevant to sounding more polite.
In English, sometimes people use a past tense form in order to sound more polite. So, example 1 below is a little more polite than example 2.
example 1: “Could I borrow your pen?”
example 2: “Can I borrow your pen?”
However, the most polite modal verb is “may”. That is why the typical opening question that customers in a store get is “May I help you?” As these examples illustrate the modal verb used by a speaker has some social relevance. It would usually sound too polite to ask a friend the following question, “May I borrow your pen?”, since “may” is often used to indicate polite deference to one’s interlocutor.
If an English learner chooses the wrong modal verb or semi-modal verb, he/she may unintentionally sound overly polite or perhaps even a little rude to an English speaker. For example, “had better” is a semi-modal verb, which is similar in meaning to “should”. However, there are differences in meaning between “had better” and “should”, which may be subtle to an English learner. One meaning of “should” is that of giving advice. “Had better” has a similar function, but the implication of this semi-modal verb is that if one doesn’t follow the advice, something bad will happen. So, if you say “You had better …” to an English speaker, it may sound like a warning.
I have encountered exactly this situation in my own personal life. I usually go to a Chinese mechanic, who I speak English with when I am giving him my business. One day after arriving at his garage and telling him where I had parked my car, he proceeded to say “You had better park over there.” This use of “had better” sounded very strange to me as a native speaker of English. I immediately assumed that he was making an English mistake rather than trying to be rude, but it occurred to me that some other English speakers might perhaps have found his suggestion a bit rude. This is because “You had better park over there.” implies that if you don’t park over there, you may suffer a negative consequence. A negative consequence might be something like ‘you’ll get a parking ticket’ or ‘I’ll be angry because I don’t like it when customers park there’. In any case, it sounded too much like an order. It would have been better for him to have said something like “Could you park behind the garage?” and then to have explained the reason. Alternatively, he could have said something such as “If you don’t mind, perhaps you could park behind the garage” and then to have explained the reason. Such suggestions would have been much more polite because they would have softened his statement. Instead of sounding like an order, he instead would more clearly have been making a polite request.
Because of the above-mentioned social implications of “had better”, English speakers often only use it with “I” and “we”. For example, examples 3 and 4 sound perfectly socially acceptable.
example 3 – “I had better hurry.” (implication – ‘or I’ll be late’)
example 4 – “We had better hurry.” (implication – ‘or we’ll be late’)
However, example 5 may sound a little bit too strong if I’m talking to somebody who I don’t know very well or who you just to be polite with.
example 5 – “You had better hurry.” (implication – ‘or you’ll be late’)
In example 5, the person you are talking to may think “It’s none of your business if I’m late or not.”
For more information about problems that Chinese learners of English face, please visit my blog at https://doctormikeenglishcenter.wordpress.com/.
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