Abstract:

The aim of the article is to look at the terminology of the English grammar and define the terms “mood”, “modality” and “mode”. The author analyzes the phenomena of Modality and Mood in the modern language and comes to the conclusion that they mean almost the same applied to the English Grammar. This point of view is confirmed by the analysis of the etymology of the terms “modality”, “mode” and “mood” in English and by the study on the usage of these terms in Early and Modern English Grammars. The grammatical term “mood” is considered a variant spelling for “mode”, from Latin “modus”. The author states that mood which is usually restricted to verbal morphology can be seen as merely one way of expressing modality. So for English where the modality is expressed in the form of the verb the terms “mood” and “modality” can be used interchangeably.

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