Passive form of "must have+past participle"

Status
Not open for further replies.

moonlike

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2012
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
Iran
Hi
Could you kindly help me with the passive form of the following sentence?
A man must have rubbed the bank. Can we say "the bank must have been being rubbed by a man"?

Thanks a million.
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
Hi
Could you kindly help me with the passive form of the following sentence?
A man must have robbed the bank. Can we say "the bank must have been [STRIKE]being[/STRIKE] robbed by a man"?

Thanks a million.
It's right now.
Your original answer is the passive form of "A man must have been robbing the bank".
 

moonlike

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2012
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
Iran
It's right now.
Your original answer is the passive form of "A man must have been robbing the bank".

Oops! I goofed! :oops: for the typo. Thanks a lot. Could you kindly tell me what the difference is between the two sentences? must have robbed and must have been robbing. Do we just emphasize on the continuation of the action in "must have been robbing"?

Thanks.
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
Oops! I goofed! :oops: for the typo. Thanks a lot. Could you kindly tell me what the difference is between the two sentences? must have robbed and must have been robbing. Do we just emphasize on the continuation of the action in "must have been robbing"?

Thanks.
Yes, it's the progressive form. (You took a non-progressive active sentence and introduced the progressive in the passive sentence.)
If something happened while the man was robbing the bank, you'd use the progressive form for robbing, and the simple past for the other event:
"The man must have been robbing the bank when he was shot."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top