How should we use "must" in second conditional .
Example - "If I saw her ,I must have spoken to her".
Is this correct ? If it is so ,it doesn't follow the rule of second conditional .
Please explain .
It all
depends on what you're trying to say to the person you're talking to.
The way I see it, if you are trying to use the
2nd conditional, you'll have to replace "must" with "have to". Although, a couple of years ago I read somewhere about the usage of "must" in the past tense by some writers of the past. In any case, we are better off using modern language, lest the words we use sound dated.
If I saw her, I would have to speak to her.
This means that "if it ever happens that I see her (
maybe again), I will have to speak to her" and implies that I either "haven't seen her ever in my life" or "haven't seen her lately".
Now compare this sentence to the following one:
If I had seen her, I would have had to speak to her.
This,
obviously, has something to do with the past. In other words, if I had seen her (at the party yesterday), I would have had to speak to her. (but I didn't see her at the party yesterday, and, even though it was my
obligation to talk to her, I didn't talk to her as I didn't get a chance to).
Now consider this sentence here:
If I had seen her, I must have spoken to her. SHOULD BE ->
If I
saw her, I
must have spoken to her. (If I
did actually
see her (e.g., at a party a week earlier))
This implies that there is a possibility that the guy spoke to her, but that's possible only if he had actually seen her at the party.
(Note from 5jj: No. See my response to your next post below] THANK YOU, SIR. I GET IT NOW. If I had seen her, I would have had to speak to her is the way to go.
I really hope my post is well-worded and helpful enough.