Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[mings]

Dear teacher,
Please tell me what the difference of the two sentences is:
1. The police must now look for the escaped convict in the surrounding countries.
2. The police must now be in search of the escaped convict in the surrounding countries.
Thanks a lot.

[Hayde]

Hello,

1) means the police have not started looking yet and should start.
2) means the police should have started looking and should still be looking now. Also, maybe the police started or maybe they didn't, the speaker doesn't know, but the speaker thinks they have started.

This is what I would say.

[pugachevV]

For #2, I think it is not a normal way to write this. I think it is better to say the police must now search for the convict etc...