Abstract
This article analyses the concept of modality presented by Palmer (1986). Over the years since its publication it has become a universal instrument for describing modality across different languages.
The basic contrast between epistemic and deontic modality is nowadays generally accepted. This article focuses primarily on modality in Spanish although it analyses this field in other languages as well (Italian, Romanian and English).
By contrasting these four languages the article attempts to answer the question whether a universal terminology can be proved sufficient for the exhaustive description of the modal system of one particular language. The results of the analysis lead to the conclusion that a uniform approach to modality is not ideal because it does not take into consideration specific aspects of a concrete language and its particular way of expressing modality.