The Ways of Translation of Modal Verbs can / could into the Kazakh and Russian Languages

Abstract

The paper considers the ways of translation of English modal verbs can/could into the Russian and Kazakh languages. Modality is a universal category which finds expression in various language means as lexical units, grammatical and syntactical structures and intonation in different languages. Study of Modal verbs is significant from the point of view of methods of teaching a foreign language, because in the process of learning of the language students very often directly transform grammatical structures of his native language into the foreign one. English grammar profoundly differs from the Kazakh and Russian grammar. Of the three languages – English, Kazakh and Russian – the Kazakh language lacks modal verbs per. ce. Due to the absence of modal verbs in Kazakh, translation of can/could presents certain difficulties. The most adequate translation variant is possible exclusively through the analysis of the context in which these verbs are used.