modal verbs of speculation and deduction present and past exercises

I thought I saw Adnan this morning but it couldn't have been him – he's in Greece this week.ĭo this exercise to test your grammar again. The other students then speculate on the situation and race to make an appropriate sentence that explains the situation using a modal verb of deduction or speculation. In groups, students take turns reading out a situation on a card to the other students. We use can't have and couldn't have + past participle when we think it's not possible that something happened. Here is a fun modal verbs of deduction and speculation board game for intermediate students. Could have is also possible in this context but less common. Police think the suspect may have left the country using a fake passport. I think I might have left the air conditioning on. We can use might have or may have + past participle when we think it's possible that something happened. The door was locked and nothing was broken. Who told the newspapers about the prime minister's plans? It must have been someone close to him. We use must have + past participle when we feel sure about what happened. This page focuses on making deductions about the past. Modals are different from normal verbs: 1: They dont use an s for the third person singular. The modal verb we choose shows how certain we are about the possibility. We can use modal verbs for deduction – guessing if something is true using the available information. Modals – deduction (past): Grammar test 1 How did she fail that exam? She can't have studied very much. We don't know for sure that Alex broke the coffee table. 1 - She _ misunderstood my directions.Look at these examples to see how must, might, may, could, can't and couldn't are used in the past.Īn earthquake? That must have been terrifying!.Now put the correct modal in these sentences. I cannot go to the show (No posso ir ao show.) Veja tambm: Simple Present. Lesson by Tristan, teacher at EC Malta English school You phoned me when I was walking to my car. We use ‘can’t have + past participle’ for things that we are sure did not happen in the past. I might have been here when I was a child but I can’t really remember. He may have said he was coming but I can’t really remember. He was supposed to be here an hour ago but he could have been stuck in a traffic jam. We use ‘might have/may have/could have + past participle’ when we are not sure about something but we think it was possible.

Might have/may have/could have + past participle He must have forgotten his phone at home again. You must have been very pleased when you received the results of your exams. We use ‘must have + past participle’ when we are quite sure about something. When we use a modal verb to talk about a situation where we are not expressing a fact but we are using deduction the form is MODAL + have + past participle (verb 3) He must have been very happy when he was told about his promotion. He must be really happy about his promotion. We can use modal verbs to talk about how sure or unsure we are about something in the past just as we use modals in the present with a slight change in the form.

Modal verbs of speculation and deduction present and past exercises