---
title: "Correct Modal Verbs"
description: "Use modal verbs to express ideas such as ability, uncertainty, necessity and permission. Can — relates to present ability and general possibility. Could — relates to possibility and suggestion. May — relates to probability and permission."
canonical: "https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/styleguide/tw/modal_verbs.html"
breadcrumb: "Style Guide > Plain English > Correct Modal Verbs"
dateModified: "2026-09-03"
---

# Correct Modal Verbs

Use modal verbs to express ideas such as ability, uncertainty, necessity and permission.

- **Can** — relates to present ability and general possibility.
- **Could** — relates to possibility and suggestion.
- **May** — relates to probability and permission. It also means that an item is optional.
- **Need** — relates to the absence of obligation. In technical documentation, this verb is used only as a synonym for the verb **want**.
- **Must** — relates to personal obligation. It means that the definition is an absolute requirement of the specification. 
- **Must not** —  relates to the absence of personal obligation. It means that the definition is an absolute prohibition of the specification.
- **Have to** — relates to impersonal obligation. Do not use it as a synonym for the verb **must**.
- **Should** — relates to expectation and recommendation. Do not use it as a synonym for the verb **must**.

::: important

We do not use the modal verbs **shall**, **might**, **would** and **ought to** in Veeam technical documentation.

:::

To learn more about key words used to indicate requirement levels, see [RFC 2119](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt).

## Examples

1. Orchestration plans [can]{.mdhl-correct} be scheduled and chained to execute in sequence. *[general possibility]* 
2. By design, you [cannot]{.mdhl-correct} customize the default template itself. *[present ability]* 
3. A situation where you attempt to monitor too many vSphere hosts and VMs [could]{.mdhl-correct} overload the Ops Mgr Health Service and thus result in unstable operation and possible monitoring outage. *[possibility]*
4. You [may]{.mdhl-correct} need to add new VM groups or remove some groups from an orchestration plan. *[probability]* 
5. If you [need]{.mdhl-correct} to monitor the state of a specific service, you can create and customize a vSphere Host Service Monitor. *[want]* 
6. To create orchestration plans, you [must]{.mdhl-correct} first categorize VMs into VM groups to be used in these plans. *[personal obligation]* 
7. At the **Resource Usage** step, specify the datastore capacity level that [must not]{.mdhl-correct} be breached during the recovery process for orchestration plans to complete successfully. *[prohibition]* 
8. You [do not have to]{.mdhl-correct} select every single monitor or rule. Just select the object that the monitors run against. *[impersonal obligation]* 
9. The Default Backup Restore IAM role [should]{.mdhl-correct} be created automatically after you perform these steps. *[expectation]*