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Modals · CEFR B2 · Confident

must be working — English modal verbs

To guess about something happening at this moment, put the continuous after the modal.

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Try must be working

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Rebuild this lesson’s reference sentence. Other tasks can have other valid word orders.

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Your sentence goes here

See the reference sentence

She must be working late.

must / might / could + be + verb-ing

Read the examples as text

She must be working late.
The "be" cannot be dropped — the modal needs it before -ing.

The shape

must / might / could + be + verb-ing

Guess what somebody is doing right now.

In Hindi

अभी चल रही किसी बात का अंदाज़ा लगाने के लिए, modal के बाद be + -ing लगाइए।

CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.

The mistake to fix first

The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.

Commonly said	Correct English
She must working late.	She must be working late. The "be" cannot be dropped — the modal needs it before -ing.

Commonly said

Correct English

She must working late.

She must be working late.

The "be" cannot be dropped — the modal needs it before -ing.

Learn these first

These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.

Questions people ask

How do I use must be working?: To guess about something happening at this moment, put the continuous after the modal. In practice: guess what somebody is doing right now.
What is the pattern for must be working?: must / might / could + be + verb-ing.
Which mistake should I avoid with must be working?: Saying “She must working late.” instead of “She must be working late.”. The "be" cannot be dropped — the modal needs it before -ing.

Where must be working fits

Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.

must be working is a CEFR B2 structure — the confident band — and it belongs to modals. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.

Reading it is not the same as saying it.

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Commonly said	Correct English
She must working late.	She must be working late. The "be" cannot be dropped — the modal needs it before -ing.

Commonly said

Correct English

She must working late.

She must be working late.

The "be" cannot be dropped — the modal needs it before -ing.