The Bogey Beast

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• Do you know what modal verbs are?

Watch this video for a quick introduction or a review if you've already learned them.

Modal verbs show what could or should be. They include verbs such as these.

• can
• could
• may
• might
• will
• would
• shall
• should
• must

Modal verbs come right before the main verb in the sentence and can change the meaning of a sentence. Suppose your mother or father asked you to clean your room.

You could say the following.

• I can clean my room.
• I could clean my room.
• I may clean my room.
• I might clean my room.
• I will clean my room.
• I would clean my room.
• I shall clean my room.
• I should clean my room.
• I must clean my room.

Each of these sentences is different, but each contains a modal verb.

• Which one would you think your mom or dad like to hear?

They would probably prefer you to say you will, shall, or must clean your room!

Now, read an old English folktale. As you read, notice the underlined sections that contain modal verbs.

The Bogey-Beast (English folktale retold by Flora Annie Steel, edited)

There was once a woman who was very, very cheerful, though she had little to make her so; for she was old, and poor, and lonely. She lived in a little bit of a cottage and earned a scant living by running errands for her neighbors, getting a bite here, a supper there, as reward for her services. So she made shift to get on, and always looked as spry and cheery as if she had not a care in the world.

Now one summer evening, as she was trotting along the road to her home, full of smiles as ever, what should she see but a big black pot lying in the ditch!

"Goodness me!" she cried, "that would be just the very thing for me if I only had something to put in it! But I haven't! Now who could have left it in the ditch?" And she looked about her expecting the owner would not be far off; but she could see nobody.

"It might be that there is a hole in it," she went on, "and that's why it has been cast away. But it would do fine to put a flower in for my window; so I'll just take it home with me." And with that she lifted the lid and looked inside. "Mercy me!" she cried, fair amazed. "It's full of gold pieces. What luck!"

And so it was, brimful of great gold coins. Well, at first she simply stood stock-still, wondering if she was standing on her head or her heels. Then she began saying: "Oh, my! But I do feel rich. I feel awful rich!"

After she had said this many times, she began to wonder how she was to get her treasure home. It was too heavy for her to carry, and she could see no better way than to tie the end of her shawl to it and drag it behind her like a cart.

"It will soon be dark," she said to herself as she trotted along. "So much the better! The neighbors will not see what I'm bringing home, and I shall have all the night to myself, and be able to think what I'll do! Mayhap I'll buy a grand house and just sit by the fire with a cup o' tea and do no work at all, like a queen. Or maybe I'll bury it at the garden foot and just keep a bit in the old china teapot on the chimney-piece. Or maybe—Goody! Goody! I feel so grand I don't know myself!"

• Did you notice how many times modal verbs occurred in this section of the story?
• There were quite a few, weren't there?

In the next section, it'll be your job to find the modals!

Move to the Got It? section now!