Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello

On page 110 Jimmie Hill in his (her?!? Please don't blame me, names like Kelly is always for woman here and others like Chris depend on the article for one to tell whether it's a name for a boy or a girl.) book Grammar and Practice (LTP) explains about the modal auxiliaries in general, in one of the items it's written:

(1) You must speak French. (I know you took lessons)=> past time.

It's referred as past time in the book, but isn't this sentence present, immediate? =>I know you took French lessons, so you probably has at least some command of spoken French, don't you?


What do you think? Is (1) referring to past time or present time?

José

others like Chris depend on the article for one to tell whether it's a name for a boy or a girl.)

Articles in English are not gender determined and normally not put before people's names anyway.

Unless the "article" is the girl herself. We have all read about the hanky-panky that goes on in Brazil

You must speak French. (I know you took lessons)=> past time.

Seems a particularly unhelpful explanation. 'Must' can be interpreted here as meaning "based on the evidence I have this is the only logical possibility" as in the sentence
"He must be home now; it's nine in the evening."

I can't see why one needs to bother talking about time here at all. Must is one of the modals that does not have a second remote form, and of course the infiinitive has aspect but not tense.

Time is irrelevant here, and when time is irrelevant the unmarked form (first or present) is what is used.