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Ділова Англійська мова для магістрів.doc
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Modals of deduction, speculation or certainty

When we know that something is true, we use a normal present tense. If we are not completely sure, we make assumptions and use modals. The choice of modal depends on the degree of certainty

.Talking about the present

must/might/could/may / can’t + infinitive

  • Where is Martha?

  • She must be on the bus. (I’m fairly sure this is a good guess)

  • She could come soon. (50% possible)

  • She may be lost (quite likely)

  • She might be in the wrong room, (possible but unlikely)

  • She can’t be at home. (I’m fairly sure this isn’t true or highly unlikely)

Talking about the Past

must/could/may/might/can’t + perfect infinitive

  • Where was Martha last night?

  • She must have forgotten about our date.

  • She could have taken the wrong bus.

  • She may have felt ill.

  • She might have worked late.

  • She can’t have stayed at home.

We use ‘should(n’t)’ to make an assumption about what is probably true, if everything is as we expect:

They should be there by now.

Al It shouldn ’t take long to drive here.

‘musf VS ‘‘can’t’’

must = almost certain positive logical assumptions

can’t = highly unlikely negative logical assumptions

She must be French.

They must be working together now.

He must have won the first prize. You must have been planning the project.

The lock must have been changed.

You can’t live here.

She can’t be looking for a new job. He can’t have arrived yet. ^ They can’t have been fixing the photocopier for so long.

Linda can’t have been invited

  1. Make deductions about the following past situations:

e.g. - He was busy when he set the deadline, (time to plan things properly)

  1. He can't have had time to plan things properly.The team didn't meet the deadline, (not enough time)

  2. The instructions weren't clear, (the team/confused)

  3. The team had to work overtime every day last week, (not happy)

  4. All the other teams were waiting for the results of our work, (they/frustrated)

needn ’t have +Past Participle VS didn ’t need to

needn’t have + past participle

it was not necessary to do sth, but it was done

(an action happened in the past, though it was not necessary)

didn’t need to + V

it was not necessary to do sth. (an action did not happen in the past because we knew it was not necessary)

She needn’t have bought so

many oranges, but she did. You needn’t have made reservations at the restaurant.

We didn V need to turn on the

light. It wasn’t dark.

We got some large orders so we didn’t need to make anyone redundant.

  1. Rephrase using must, may, can’t