Question

Fill in the blank with a modal auxiliary from the choices given below-
I ____ not oppose your candidate if you say so.
a- could
b- will
c- ought to
d- used to

Answer 1

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

Complete answer:
Let’s look at the usage of different modal verbs-
Could- ‘Could’ is the past tense form of ‘can’. It is used to indicate the potentiality or probability of a person to do something in the past or in indirect speech. For example- They couldn’t reach on time.
Will- ‘Will’ is used to indicating decisions, promises, or offers about future predictions. For example- I will not do it again.
Ought to- ‘Ought to’ is used to indicate the probability of something. For example- An hour ought to be enough to complete the exam.
Used to- ‘Used to’ helps in indicating actions that took place in the past. For example- We used to dance at this place.
In the given question- We can conclude that X will not oppose Y’s candidate if he says so. Here, we have used ‘will’ to indicate that X will not oppose Y’s candidate in the future.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘could’ is an incorrect option because we are not indicating an action that took place in the past.
Option b- ‘will’ is the correct option because we are making a prediction about the future.
Option c- ‘ought to’ is an incorrect option because we are not indicating the probability of something.
Option d- ‘used to’ is an incorrect option because we are not talking about an action that took place in the past. The correct answer is Option ‘b’.

Note:
 Keep in mind, we cannot use ‘will’ for actions in the past. We use ‘would’ to denote actions that took place in the past.