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Hi guys, Dan for BBC Learning English.

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As you can see, I'm not at all happy about this situation, something's gone missing.

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Now this week we're going to talk about modals with a past meaning and as usual we're going

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to do the whole thing in 90 seconds, excuse me.

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So as you know, English has modal verbs, there are nine of them in total.

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are must, can't, may, might, and could. Now these verbs are normally followed by the

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infinitive and they're special because they don't change their form for person

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or to show time. They have a present meaning but when we want to use them

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with a past meaning we use the modal verb plus have plus the past participle.

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In this case, Rob must have eaten my cake. Now, Rob must have eaten my cake is a

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is a measure of confidence. It means that I am extremely confident

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that Rob did this at some time in the past. When we change the modal verb, we

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change the level of confidence.

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For example, Rob can't have eaten my cake.

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This means I think that this is impossible, but I know he did it.

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Let's make it less certain. Rob

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may have eaten my cake. This means it's possible.

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Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I'm not sure. And the same for might.

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rob might have eaten my cake finally at the lowest level of confidence meaning this is possible but

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i'm not 100 sure at all rob could have eaten my cake but that's not true because rob must

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have eaten my cake rob always eats my cake i suppose it's my fault the last set of modal

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verbs that we can talk about is should when we make a mistake in the past this is called hindsight

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So, maybe I shouldn't have left it...

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I should have been a bit quicker.

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Maybe I shouldn't have left it in the fridge.

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Maybe I should have put my cake at my desk.

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But Rob, come on, man.

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Anyway, guys, modal verbs in the past.

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It's modal plus have plus the past participle.

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Don't forget, I've got to go and sort Rob out.

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See you next time, okay?