Modal Auxiliary Verbs Meaning: May, Will, Must, and Can Explained

Modal auxiliary verbs are helping verbs such as can, may, must, will, should, could, would, and might. They help show ideas like ability, permission, possibility, obligation, or future action.

In plain English, modal auxiliary verbs are small helper words that change the meaning of the main verb. In I can swim, can shows ability. In You must stop, must shows obligation. In It may rain, may shows possibility.

In the June 2, 2026 NYT Connections puzzle, the purple category was ENDING IN MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS. The words were CAPE MAY, FREE WILL, GRAPE MUST, and TIN CAN. The full puzzle guide is at https://fluentslang.com/nyt-connections-hints-answers-today-june-2-2026/. The trick was that each phrase ended with a modal verb: MAY, WILL, MUST, and CAN.

That is a very Connections-style move. The whole phrase does not share a topic. The final word does.

What Modal Auxiliary Verbs Do

A main verb tells you the action. A modal auxiliary verb changes how that action works.

I swim.

I can swim.

The first sentence says the action happens. The second says the person has the ability to do it.

She leaves.

She may leave.

The first sentence sounds definite. The second suggests permission or possibility.

You call me.

You must call me.

The first sentence is plain. The second adds obligation.

That is what modal auxiliary verbs do. They add meaning without acting like regular verbs.

Common Modal Auxiliary Verbs

The most common modal auxiliary verbs include can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would.

Can often shows ability or permission.

Could often shows past ability, possibility, or a polite request.

May often shows permission or possibility.

Might often shows possibility.

Must often shows obligation or strong certainty.

Should often shows advice or expectation.

Will often shows future action or willingness.

Would often shows a conditional idea, a polite request, or a repeated past habit.

These are small words, but they do a lot of work. That is why grammar teachers care about them, and why puzzle editors can hide them at the ends of phrases.

Why May, Will, Must, And Can Fit Together

In today’s puzzle, the four final words were MAY, WILL, MUST, and CAN.

May can show permission: You may go.

Will can show the future: I will call.

Must can show obligation: You must finish.

Can can show ability: She can run.

Those four words are all modal auxiliary verbs. But in the puzzle entries, they were not being used as helper verbs.

CAPE MAY is a place name.

FREE WILL is a noun phrase about choice.

GRAPE MUST is a wine-making term for grape juice before or during fermentation.

TIN CAN is a container.

The category ignored the meaning of each full phrase and focused on the final word. That is the whole trick.

Examples In Plain English

I can lift the box.

You may sit here.

We must leave soon.

They will arrive at noon.

She might join us later.

You should bring a jacket.

I would help if I had time.

Each modal appears before a main verb. Can lift. May sit. Must leave. Will arrive. Might join. Should bring. Would help.

That placement is one reason the puzzle was tricky. In CAPE MAY, FREE WILL, GRAPE MUST, and TIN CAN, the modal-looking word comes at the end. It is not doing grammar work inside the phrase. It is just the piece the category cares about.

Modal Auxiliary Verbs vs Regular Verbs

Modal auxiliary verbs behave differently from regular verbs.

You usually do not add s to them for he, she, or it.

You say she can go, not she cans go.

You say he must leave, not he musts leave.

You usually put the main verb right after the modal in its base form.

I can swim, not I can swimming.

They will call, not they will calling.

Modals also form questions and negatives in special ways.

Can you help?

You must not enter.

Will they come?

These patterns are why they are called auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary means helping. They help the main verb carry extra meaning.

Common Mistake: Looking For A Shared Topic

The biggest mistake in this Connections category is trying to make the four full phrases mean the same kind of thing.

CAPE MAY, FREE WILL, GRAPE MUST, and TIN CAN do not form a normal topic group. One is geographic. One is philosophical. One is related to wine. One is a household object.

If you keep asking, what are these things, the group feels impossible.

The better question is, what do these phrases have in common as words?

They all end in a modal auxiliary verb.

Connections often uses this kind of structure for purple categories. It may use words that start with months, end with body parts, contain numbers, sound like letters, or hide grammar terms. When meaning fails, inspect spelling, sound, and word position.

Common Mistake: Thinking Must Only Means Obligation

Must is a good example of why this puzzle was sneaky.

As a modal verb, must means obligation or strong certainty: You must wear a seatbelt. That must be the right answer.

As a noun in wine-making, must means grape juice before or during fermentation. That is the meaning in GRAPE MUST as a phrase.

The puzzle did not need you to know the wine meaning deeply. It needed you to notice that the phrase ends in MUST. Still, the wine term made the entry look like it belonged to food, not grammar.

That same board had a real food category with BUBBLE AND SQUEAK, CHIPS, JACKET POTATO, and MASH. For that food term, see https://fluentslang.com/bubble-and-squeak-meaning/.

Why It Mattered In Today’s Connections Puzzle

The modal auxiliary verbs category mattered because it was the puzzle’s structural group. The other groups leaned on meaning: secret words, British potato dishes, and heraldry terms.

This group leaned on endings.

That means it rewarded a different solving habit. Instead of asking whether CAPE MAY and TIN CAN are both objects, you had to notice MAY and CAN. Instead of asking whether FREE WILL and GRAPE MUST are both abstract ideas, you had to notice WILL and MUST.

The presence of long phrases helped hide the pattern. CLOAK-AND-DAGGER was an idiom about secrecy, explained at https://fluentslang.com/cloak-and-dagger-meaning/. COAT OF ARMS was a heraldry phrase, explained at https://fluentslang.com/coat-of-arms-meaning/. BUBBLE AND SQUEAK was a British dish. So solvers were trained to respect whole phrases. Then the purple category asked them to ignore the whole and inspect the ending.

That switch is what makes purple categories feel unfair until they click.

Related Terms And Phrases

Auxiliary verb means helping verb.

Main verb means the action or state verb that carries the core meaning.

Modal means a helper verb that expresses possibility, permission, ability, necessity, advice, or future action.

Permission is shown in sentences like You may leave or Can I go?

Ability is shown in sentences like I can swim.

Obligation is shown in sentences like You must stop.

Possibility is shown in sentences like It might rain or It may happen.

Future is often shown with will, as in We will meet tomorrow.

Conditional meaning often uses would, as in I would go if I could.

A Simple Way To Remember It

Modal auxiliary verbs are helper words that answer questions like can it happen, must it happen, may it happen, or will it happen?

For today’s puzzle, the important shortcut was even simpler: look at the endings. CAPE MAY ends in MAY. FREE WILL ends in WILL. GRAPE MUST ends in MUST. TIN CAN ends in CAN.

That is the category.

For the full June 2 Connections breakdown, use https://fluentslang.com/nyt-connections-hints-answers-today-june-2-2026/. For the next day’s puzzle, continue to https://fluentslang.com/nyt-connections-hints-answers-today-june-3-2026/.