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"Must" as a speculative word | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| cmmah Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 4320 days ago 52 posts - 110 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Irish | Message 1 of 15 24 August 2012 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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For example:
He's late. He must be stuck in traffic. They must be freezing. I must have left the door open. Does this exist in any other languages, or is it an idiosyncrasy of English. I know that in Spanish you use the future tense for speculating about the future (e.g "¿Estarán abiertas las tiendas hoy?), but I haven't seen anything like this used in another language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FELlX Diglot Groupie France Joined 4559 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 2 of 15 24 August 2012 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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This exists in French:
J'ai dû laisser la porte ouverte. I must have left the door open. Ils doivent être en train de geler. They must be freezing. Il doit être bloqué dans le trafic. He must be stuck in traffic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kman543210 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4453 days ago 26 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, German | Message 3 of 15 24 August 2012 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | ||
Besides the examples you gave in Spanish, I'm not sure how this is done in other languages. In English, speculate is one way to describe this, but I would also say it indicates some certainty or deduction. Basically, you're saying that based on what you know about the situation, you can't see any other outcome (or this is the most likely one). In some cases, I think you can substitute "have to" in place of "must" to indicate the same thing: "He is running later than usual. He has to be stuck in traffic." "They aren't wearing coats outside. They have to be freezing." Edited by kman543210 on 24 August 2012 at 6:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hertz Pro Member United States Joined 4302 days ago 47 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 15 24 August 2012 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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It seems to me that I've seen a similar construction in Spanish with deber along the lines of, "It must be (I speculate that it is) four o'clock." Edited by Hertz on 24 August 2012 at 6:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4633 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 5 of 15 24 August 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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This also exists in German: Er muss wohl noch zu Hause sein (Presumably, he must still be at home). Edited by Josquin on 24 August 2012 at 7:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4504 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 6 of 15 24 August 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's the same in Portuguese with the verb "dever" (must) :
"Ele deve estar preso no trânsito." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5242 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 7 of 15 24 August 2012 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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The construction also exist in the Scandinavian languages.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ling Diglot Groupie Taiwan Joined 4375 days ago 61 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Thai | Message 8 of 15 24 August 2012 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Chinese you don't use the equivalent of "must" (必須); instead you would use the equivalent of "surely" (一定).
他還沒到,一定堵車了吧。 He hasn't arrived yet; [there is] surely a traffic jam. This is reinforced by the final particle 吧, which conveys a speculative sense (like "so it seems"). 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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