Word.ws English Dictionary

double modal

double modal noun: a sequence of two modal verbs, such as "might could", an impossible construction in standard English, but one used in some dialects, especially Southern US English.

Noun

double modal (plural double modals)

  1. A sequence of two modal verbs, such as "might could", an impossible construction in standard English, but one used in some dialects, especially Southern US English.
    • The first instances of double modals date back to the seventeenth century.2019, Irina S. Lebedeva, Svetlana N. Orlova, “Semantics and pragmatics of the double modal ‘might could’”, in Training, Language and Culture, volume 3, number 2, →DOI
    Synonyms:
    stacked modal

Synonyms of double modal

Forms of double modal

pluraldouble modals

Questions about double modal

What does double modal mean?
Double modal means a sequence of two modal verbs, such as "might could", an impossible construction in standard English, but one used in some dialects, especially Southern US English.
What part of speech is double modal?
Double modal is a noun.
What is the plural of double modal?
The plural of double modal is double modals.

Words near double modal in the dictionary

  1. double mini tramp
  2. double mini trampoline
  3. double mini trampolines
  4. double mini tramps
  5. double minis
  6. double modal
  7. double modals
  8. double monasteries
  9. double monastery
  10. double monocular O
  11. double monocular Os

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: double modal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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