Early Modern English

====Modal auxiliaries====
The [[English modal verbs|modal auxiliaries]] cemented their distinctive syntactical characteristics during the Early Modern period. Thus, the use of modals without an infinitive became rare (as in "I must to Coventry"; "I'll none of that"). The use of modals' present participles to indicate aspect (as in "Maeyinge suffer no more the loue & deathe of Aurelio" from 1556), and of their preterite forms to indicate tense (as in "he follow'd Horace so very close, that of necessity he must fall with him") also became uncommon.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge |location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|pages=231–35}}</ref>

Some verbs ceased to function as modals during the Early Modern period. The present form of ''must'', ''mot'', became obsolete. ''Dare'' also lost the syntactical characteristics of a modal auxiliary and evolved a new past form (''dared''), distinct from the modal ''durst''.<ref>{{Cite book|editor=Lass, Roger|title=The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume III|year=1999| publisher=Cambridge|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-26476-1|page=232}}</ref>