Question

Fill in the blank using an appropriate modal auxiliary verb.
It didn’t matter how many times you reminded him to do something, George ____ always forget what was told to him. But now he has changed.
a- will
b- would
c- may
d- might

Answer 1

Hint: Modal verbs refer to those verbs or words that are used to indicate potentiality, possibility, or necessity. For example- Can, could, may, might, will, etc.

Complete answer:
Let’s look at the usage of different modal verbs-
1) Will- ‘Will’ is a modal verb that is used to indicate promises, decisions, or forecasts about the future. For example- I will do it by tomorrow.
2) Would- ‘Would’ is the past tense form of ‘will’. It is used to indicate promises or decisions that we had taken in the past. For example- Mother would have reached by now.
3) May- ‘May’ is a modal verb that is used for taking consent or authority to do something or to indicate the probability of an action taking place. For example- We may get late to work.
4) Might- ‘Might’ is the past tense of ‘may’. It is used to indicate the probability of action in the past tense or in indirect speech. For example- We might have crashed last night.
In the given question: We can conclude that George would always forget what was told to him despite the many times one reminded him to do something. But now he has changed. Here, we have used ‘would’, because we are talking about a past action.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘Will’ is an incorrect option because we are not talking about the future.
Option b- ‘Would’ is the correct option because we are indicating an action of the past with reference to the future.
Option c- ‘May’ is an incorrect option because we are not talking about the possibility of something.
Option d- ‘Might’ is an incorrect option because we are not talking about the possibility of something. The correct answer is Option ‘b’.

Note:
The main point of distinction between ‘will’ and ‘would’ is that ‘would’ is used to indicate past actions, whereas ‘will’ indicates promises made in the present about the future.