Editing Modal verb (section)

===Mandarin Chinese===
[[Standard Chinese|Mandarin Chinese]] is an [[isolating language]] without inflections. As in English, modality can be indicated either lexically, with main verbs such as ''yào'' "want" followed by another main verb, or with auxiliary verbs. In Mandarin the auxiliary verbs have six properties that distinguish them from main verbs:<ref name=Li>Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thomson, ''Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar'', 1989.</ref>{{rp|pp.173–174}}

*They must co-occur with a verb (or an understood verb).
*They cannot be accompanied by aspect markers.
*They cannot be modified by intensifiers such as "very".
*They cannot be nominalized (used in phrases meaning, for example, "one who can")
*They cannot occur before the subject.
*They cannot take a direct object.

The complete list of  modal auxiliary verbs<ref name=Li/>{{rp|pp.182–183}} consists of
*three meaning "should",
*four meaning "be able to",
*two meaning "have permission to",
*one meaning "dare",
*one meaning "be willing to",
*four meaning "must" or "ought to", and
*one meaning "will" or "know how to".