The Five Modals (Reference Table) | Afrikaans Grammar

The five Afrikaans modals — kan, mag, moet, wil, sal — are the workhorses of everyday speech, and they have one feature that makes them irregular: unlike ordinary verbs, they keep a separate past-tense form (a preterite). Laid out together, that past column reveals a pattern almost too neat to be true: kon, mog, moes, wou, sou. This page is a compact reference — the full table, the perfect-tense behaviour, and the word-order frame — so you can look up any modal at a glance. For what each modal means in nuance and how they combine, see the modals overview and modals in the past.

The master table

Each modal has a present and a past (preterite) form, plus a special perfect cluster (used for the more remote past, "had been able to…"). The gloss is the core meaning; finer shades live on the modals overview.

Present	Past (preterite)	Perfect cluster	Core meaning
kan	kon	het kon …	can / could — ability, possibility
moet	moes	het moes …	must / had to — obligation, necessity
mag	mog (literary/archaic)	het mag …	may / might — permission
wil	wou	het wou …	want / wanted to — desire
sal	sou	(no perfect cluster)	will / would — future, prediction

Read the preterite column on its own: kon, moes, mog, wou, sou. Notice how wou and sou rhyme, and how the others share the short, irregular feel. Learning them as a chant — kan-kon, moet-moes, mag-mog, wil-wou, sal-sou — fixes the whole set faster than learning each in isolation.

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Three of these preterites are in constant daily use — kon (could), moes (had to), wou (wanted) — and you should treat them as live, everyday forms. mog (might) is the odd one out: in modern spoken Afrikaans it is largely literary or archaic, and people usually express past permission another way (see the note below). Don't drill mog the way you drill kon and moes.

The word-order frame: bare infinitive at the clause end

The reason these are "modals" and not ordinary verbs is the frame they build. A modal sits in the second position (the normal verb slot), and the main verb goes to the very end of the clause in its bare infinitive form — no ge-, no te, no ending. Ek kan swem ("I can swim"); in a longer clause the main verb still races to the end: Ek kan môre saam met julle strand toe swem.

Modal (2nd position)	… middle of clause …	Bare infinitive (end)
Ek kan	môre	kom.
Sy moet	vroeg	opstaan.
Ons wil	vanaand fliek toe	gaan.

Ek kan jou môre by die stasie kom haal.

I can come fetch you at the station tomorrow.

Sy moet elke oggend vroeg opstaan vir werk.

She has to get up early every morning for work.

A pair of examples for each — one in the present, one with the preterite — so you can see the form alive in a sentence.

kan / kon — can / could (ability, possibility)

Kan jy my asseblief met die tasse help?

Can you please help me with the bags?

Ek kon nie slaap nie — dit was te warm.

I couldn't sleep — it was too hot.

moet / moes — must / had to (obligation)

Jy moet jou medisyne saam met kos drink.

You must take your medicine with food.

Ons moes 'n uur lank in die ry staan.

We had to stand in the queue for an hour.

mag / mog — may / might (permission)

Mag ek 'n oomblik met jou praat?

May I have a word with you for a moment?

In daardie dae mog kinders nie aan tafel praat nie.

In those days children might not speak at the table.

For everyday past permission, Afrikaans usually reaches for kon ("was allowed to") or a paraphrase with toegelaat ("permitted") rather than mog, which feels distinctly old-fashioned. As kind kon ek nooit laat opbly nie ("As a child I was never allowed to stay up late") is far more natural than the mog equivalent.

wil / wou — want / wanted to (desire)

A spelling point worth flagging: "want" on its own — without a following verb — is the fixed expression wil hê (literally "want to have"), and hê carries a circumflex (ê). So I want an apple is Ek wil 'n appel hê. But wil + another verb needs no hê: Ek wil slaap ("I want to sleep").

Ek wil 'n koppie tee hê voor ons ry.

I want a cup of tea before we go.

Hy wou nog bly, maar dit was al laat.

He still wanted to stay, but it was already late.

sal / sou — will / would (future, prediction)

Ek sal jou bel sodra ek by die huis is.

I'll call you as soon as I'm home.

Sy het gesê sy sou later kom, maar sy het nie.

She said she would come later, but she didn't.

The perfect cluster: het kon, het moes, het wou

For the more remote past ("had been able to / had had to / had wanted to"), the modal joins het and the main verb piles up at the end — a "double infinitive" cluster. The modal does not take ge-; it appears in its plain form after het.

Afrikaans	English
Ek het nie kon kom nie.	I hadn't been able to come.
Sy het moes werk.	She had had to work.
Hy het wou help.	He had wanted to help.

Ek het nie die vergadering kon bywoon nie.

I hadn't been able to attend the meeting.

In practice, the simple preterite (kon, moes, wou) covers most past situations, and you only reach for the het kon… cluster when you genuinely need that extra layer of pastness. The cluster's structure — two verb forms stacked at the end — is detailed on the double-infinitive page. Note that sal has no such cluster: its past is simply sou.

Just outside the core five sits behoort (te) — "ought to / should" — which behaves like a modal in meaning but takes te before the infinitive: Jy behoort 'n dokter te sien ("You ought to see a doctor"). It is more formal than moet and expresses mild advice rather than firm obligation. Unlike the five core modals, it has no special preterite — you simply use it as is.

Jy behoort 'n bietjie te rus — jy lyk moeg.

You ought to rest a bit — you look tired.

Common mistakes

❌ Ek kan swem môre.

Word order — the bare infinitive goes to the end: Ek kan môre swem.

✅ Ek kan môre swem.

I can swim tomorrow.

❌ Sy moet vroeg opgestaan het.

Incorrect — for past obligation use the preterite moes, not a perfect of the main verb: Sy moes vroeg opstaan.

✅ Sy moes vroeg opstaan.

She had to get up early.

❌ Ek wil 'n appel.

Incomplete — 'want' with no verb needs hê: Ek wil 'n appel hê.

✅ Ek wil 'n appel hê.

I want an apple.

❌ Ek het gekan kom.

Incorrect — the modal takes no ge-; use het kon: Ek het kon kom.

✅ Ek het kon kom.

I had been able to come.

❌ Jy behoort 'n dokter sien.

Incorrect — behoort takes te: Jy behoort 'n dokter te sien.

✅ Jy behoort 'n dokter te sien.

You ought to see a doctor.

Key takeaways

The five core modals are kan, moet, mag, wil, sal, each with a preterite: kon, moes, mog, wou, sou — learn the column as a set.
kon, moes, wou are everyday past forms; mog is largely literary/archaic, and past permission is usually expressed with kon instead.
A modal sits in second position and sends the main verb, as a bare infinitive, to the end of the clause: Ek kan môre kom.
The remote past uses the het + modal + infinitive cluster (het kon…, het moes…); the modal never takes ge-. sal is the exception — its only past is sou.
"Want" with no following verb is the fixed wil hê (note the circumflex on hê): Ek wil 'n appel hê.
behoort te ("ought to") is a softer, more formal quasi-modal that takes te and has no special past. For meaning and combinations, see modals overview and the double infinitive.

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