Re: deduction (grammar)
Posted by Novel on 6/15/08
On 6/15/08, omar wrote: > Hi, all. > I am teacher of English. I am Egyptian.Could you please > tell me which is the correct choice for the following > sentence and why? > - I can't find my keys. They must (be / have been) lost. > Thank you for u all.
"be" is more approrpiate because are they are, at present, in a state of still being lost. "have been" seems to imply that someone else lost them OR that it all happened quite a long time ago in which case the first sentence would not really make sense.