In Montenegrin language there aren’t as many modal verbs as in English. Generally, we can say that there are four modal verbs: moći, morati, smjeti and htjeti.
MOĆI
Verb moći (can, be able to) doesn’t follow regular conjugation patterns and must be memorized:
Ja mogu mi možemo
Ti možeš vi možete
On može oni mogu
Example: Možete kupiti kartu u tramvaju.
In Montenegrin, the construction can ( to be able/ allowed to do something) plus verb is expressed in two ways:
- Moći + ifinitive of the verb
Mogu li govoriti sa gospodinom Milićem?
- B) Moći + linking DA + conjugated main verb
Možda možemo da pokušamo da rezervišemo karte.
HTJETI
Modal verb htjeti ( be willing to, or want) also has irregular conjugation:
Hoću hoćemo
Hoćeš hoćete
Hoće hoće
Ja hoću da budem doktor.
Ona hoće da kupi haljinu.
MORATI:
Unlike these two modal verbs, verb morati ( to have to, must) conjugates like any other regular verb:
moram moramo
moraš morate
mora moraju
Sada moram da idem u školu.
SMJETI
Verb smjeti (be allowed to, should, dare) conjugates like any other regular verb:
Smijem Smijemo
Smiješ Smijete
Smije Smiju
Da li smijem ovdje da parkiram auto?
To ne smijete zaboraviti.
Negative forms of the modal verbs, with the excepetion of htjeti, are formed with a negative particle ne and the conjugated modal verb.
Tamo ne možete parkirati.
To ne smijete zaboraviti.
Nagtive form of the verb htejti is formed on the following way:
Neću nećemo
Nećeš nećete
Neće neće
