Modal verbs
Modal verbs are verbs that indicate what we in linguistics call modality. Modality is what allows us to attach things such as belief, attitude, and obligation to statements. This means that words such as must, may, want, are all modal verbs.
This probably sounds very abstract at the moment, let's look at how modal verbs can completely change a sentence:
I go to school.
I have to go to school.
Here we use have as a modal verb.
I eat.
I want to eat.
Here, the modal word is want.
You can already see how important modal verbs are. But how do we use them in Swedish? You just add the modal verb, followed by the main verb in infinitive form.
Jag går till skolan. (I go to school.)
Jag måste gå till skolan. (I must go to school.)
(If you need a little refresher on the infinitive form, take a quick look at the lesson in infinitive form.)
Notice how we change går from present tense to the infinitive gå. If we use other tenses, we conjugate the modal verb, not the main verb.
Jag såg honom. (I saw him.)
Jag kunde se honom. (I could see him)
Here, we change såg from past tense to the infinitive form, se.
Glossary
Finally, here is some of the verbs we will be learning in this lesson:
Swedish English
kan can
måste must
får may, be allowed to
borde should
få get, receive
ska will, shall
Good luck!
/ fluent 
/ learning 
/ fan of 
(bs/bl)