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Modals of Deduction Must

Modal verbs such as must, can't, might, may and could are used to express degrees of certainty about statements. Must is used when the speaker is confident something is true based on strong evidence. Might, may and could suggest something is possible but not certain. Can't expresses confidence that something is not true. All these modal verbs are followed by an infinitive verb without "to".

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76 views3 pages

Modals of Deduction Must

Modal verbs such as must, can't, might, may and could are used to express degrees of certainty about statements. Must is used when the speaker is confident something is true based on strong evidence. Might, may and could suggest something is possible but not certain. Can't expresses confidence that something is not true. All these modal verbs are followed by an infinitive verb without "to".

Uploaded by

Ivan Castañeda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MODALS OF DEDUCTION MUST, CAN´T, MAIGHT, MAY AND

COULD.
We use modal verbs to say how sure we are about something.

1 must

We use must when we feel sure that something is true because there’s very strong
evidence.

 He must live near here because he comes to work on foot. We don’t know where
he lives but we’re sure it’s not far away.
 Come inside and get warm – you must be freezing out there.
 You’re a zookeeper? That must be very interesting.

Notice that must is followed by an infinitive without ‘to’.


2 might, may, could

We use might, may or could to say that we think something is possible but we’re
not sure.

 Did you hear that? I think there might be a burglar downstairs. She’s not sure
there’s a burglar but she thinks it’s possible.
 We’ll try to get there early but we may arrive late if there’s a lot of traffic.
 Don’t put it up there. It could fall off and hit someone.

Might, may and could are also followed by an infinitive without ‘to’.
3 can’t

We use can’t when we feel sure something is not true.

 It can’t be a burglar. All the doors and windows are locked. He doesn’t know it’s not
a burglar but he feels sure it’s not.
 It can’t be far away now. We’ve been driving for hours. Where’s the map?
 Really? He has to work on Christmas Day? He can’t feel very happy about that.

Like the other verbs, can’t is followed by an infinitive without ‘to’.

Remember that all of these modal verbs – must, might, may, could and can’t have
other uses. These are covered in another section.

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