Examples of Modal Auxiliaries for Surety

Modal Auxiliaries for Surety Examples

1. Surety about the Present Examples

While making any decision about the present, you will use “must” when you are confident that something is true and will use “can’t” when you are confident that something is impossible.

Examples:

• If you see a traffic Police wearing a uniform and controlling traffic on the road, you can say:

S/He must be a traffic police.

And similarly, you can say that,

S/He can’t be ‍a doctor.

• If you see a doctor wearing an apron consulting with patients in a hospital, you can say:

S/He must be a doctor.

And similarly, you can say that,

S/He can’t be a police officer.

• If you see a lawyer prosecuting at the court, you can say:

S/He must be a lawyer.

And similarly, you can say that,

S/He can’t be a doctor.

• If you see a teacher taking a class in any class of a school, you can say:

S/He must be a teacher.

And similarly, you can say that,

S/He can’t be a lawyer.

• If you see a police officer wearing a uniform performing his duty, you can say:

S/He must be a police officer.

And similarly, you can say that,

S/He can’t be a doctor.

• If you see a Nurse wearing a uniform taking care of patients, you can say:

S/He must be a nurse.

And similarly, you can say that,

S/He can’t be a doctor.

• If you see a pion wearing a uniform serving the teachers at a varsity, you can say:

He must be a pion.

And similarly, you can say that,

He can’t be a professor.

2. Surety about the Past Examples:

When at Present something leads you to draw a definite conclusion about what took place in the Past, you have to use “must have”, “must not have” and “couldn’t have” with the past participle form of the verb.

You can use “Can’t have” which is not that common like couldn’t have.

Examples:

• Lisa is looking so sleepy; she must have studied the whole night.
• Albert is absent at the meeting. He must not have arrived the city yet.
• Alice couldn’t have broken the paperweight. She was absent in the office yesterday.
• I can’t find Aric’s assignment here. He must not have done it. (Assuming he did not do it)
• Aric was hospitalized for a week, so he couldn’t have done the assignment. (Knowing it’s impossible for him to do)
• Jeff is looking so exhausted. He must have worked the whole day at the office.
• Richard is absent in the program. He must not have arrived here yet.

3. Surety about the Future examples:

Making any decision about the future is like making a prediction. You will use “will” or “going to” to represent what you trust will take place in future. You will use the word “definitely” to represent the certainty if you are quite sure of the occurrence.

Examples:

• Peter is definitely going to love this movie. All the action sequences are so excellent, exactly the type he likes.
• You will definitely be happy when you will see the air tickets.
• You will definitely be excited when you will come to know that your favorite singer is coming to the concert.

You can represent the surety of your prediction more formally if you use either is/are certain to or is/are sure to.

 Examples:

• The law students are certain to like this book because it contains so many interesting cases by renowned lawyers.
• The fashion designers are sure to attend this program because it is full of opportunities for them.
• You are sure to like this detective book because the mystery is not unfolded until the end of the book.