Modals · CEFR B2 · Confident
must be working — English modal verbs
To guess about something happening at this moment, put the continuous after the modal.
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. |
Learn these first
These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.
- may / mightB1Say something is possible without claiming it is certain
- Present ContinuousA1Say what is happening right now
Questions people ask
- What is the must be working used for?
- To guess about something happening at this moment, put the continuous after the modal. In practice: guess what somebody is doing right now.
- How do you form the must be working?
- must / might / could + be + verb-ing.
- What is the most common mistake with the 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.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
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