What is the difference between epistemic and deontic modal auxiliary verbs?

A modal auxillary verb is verb such as 'must', 'will', 'should', 'may', 'might' and so on, that indicate something that may or may not happen in a sentence. Whether or not the verb is epistemic or deontic indicates if 'something' will happen or not. For example, the modal auxillary verb 'will' is deontic because it means that the subject of the sentence definitely will happen, whilst the modal auxillary verb 'may' is epistemic because the outcome is less definite.

EO
Answered by Emily O. English Language tutor

28903 Views

See similar English Language A Level tutors

Related English Language A Level answers

All answers ▸

Discuss the idea that where someone comes from affects how they use language.


What's the difference between dialects and accents?


what is the difference between a hyponym and a hypernym?


How do I analyse a child’s written language development instead of spoken development because I can’t analyse things like phonology or conversational features?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning