Los verbos modales son de uso cotidiano en lengua inglesa; por ello, conviene conocer su funcionamiento. Por lo general, este tipo de oraciones se utilizan para expresar situaciones de posibilidad, especulación o probabilidad. Normalmente, se emplean en el siguiente formato:
modal verb + to have + participio pasado de un verbo:
I must have gone; verbo modal➙ must + ➙ have + participio pasado➙ gone (to go).
Examples:
➤ El modal perfect se puede formar con must have, may have, might have, could have, can't have (cannot have), would have, should have, ought to have
➤ Por el contrario conviene recordar que will es un verbo modal que no se puede utilizar en el sentido de "modal perfect", pues se emplea para formar el future perfect: I will have worked (Yo habré trabajado).
➤ Por el contrario conviene recordar que will es un verbo modal que no se puede utilizar en el sentido de "modal perfect", pues se emplea para formar el future perfect: I will have worked (Yo habré trabajado).
- Lucy may have had to take the late flight.
- She must have been in class at that time.
- He could have won the game in the previous match.
- You could have telephoned us before the event was cancelled.
- They think it might have worked, if you had a different attitude.
- He should have called us before taking a decision.
- She can't have been so busy to miss the afternoon class.
- I should have thought it about, now everything is lost.
Observe the following examples:
