"it can lead to" and "it leads to"

Question

I'm trying to figure out why it is okay that "it" stays the same but "lead/leads" changes with just the addition of "can." Can someone explain this to me? It does not follow the rules of subject-verb agreement, does it? Or is this just something else?

It can lead to success. It leads to success.

Answer 1

Both sentences still follow subject-verb agreement. They just have different verbs:

It can lead to success.

It leads to success.

In the first sentence, the verb can is acting as a modal verb, indicating possibility. Modal verbs are followed by the bare infinitive, which is why the sentence is "It can lead..." instead of "It can leads..."