LoginTalking about Assumptions
What Do we Mean by Assumption?
Modals and assumption
There are words in English that are used to express assumptions. Here are the modals:
Using Will: Past, Present and Future
The modal verb 'will' is used to help us assume a fact. Your assumption might be true or not.
Normally, 'will' has a reference to the present or future tense, but sometimes it is followed by a perfect infinitive structure which makes it possible for 'will' to refer to the past tense.
I thought it will have been finished by Monday.
She won't talk to me. We broke up two months ago.
Using Should: Past, Present and Future
Although the modal verb 'should' is the past tense of the verb 'shall,' but when we are talking about assumptions it functions as a present or future verb unless there is a perfect infinitive structure after it.
They should be married by now.
We should have been graduated by now.
Using Ought to: Past, Present and Future
The modal verb 'ought to' is usually used as an alternative for the verb 'should,' but it is considered less common.
As you can guess, it refers to the present or future tense unless we use 'have + past participle' after it.
We ought to have won if we kept practicing.
You ought to be Maria. Right?
Negation
As you know, all these verbs are modal verbs and as a result, they are negated by adding the term 'not' to them. In this case, we can indicate that we do not think something is true.
You shouldn't be the one who stole my purse.
He will not be your best friend.
Review
To talk about assumption you can use three verbs phrases as follows. Check out the table to consider them in different tenses.
Present | Past | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|
Will | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Should | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ought to | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
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