A puzzling question

Question

1. Salma ----------- to leave the house as soon as she feeds her cat because
she has an urgent meeting.

a. has got to b. will have got to

The model answer to this question is "has got to". I want to know why the second choice is wrong.

2. What did the convict admit? - He admitted stealing a meat pie.

Is the question mentioned above correct? Shouldn't it be "What did the convict admit doing?" ?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Omar Ahmed
1. Salma ----------- to leave the house as soon as she feeds her cat because she has an urgent meeting.
a. has got to b. will have got to
The model answer to this question is "has got to". I want to know why the second choice is wrong.

It's wrong because the idiom "have got to" in the sense of obligation is only used in the present. It's either "have got to" or "has got to". (Actually, the simple past is used on occasion, but it's rare — "had got to". It sounds old-fashioned to my ear.)

No continuous forms are used (is having got to, was having got to, etc.), and no perfect forms are used (have had got to, had had got to), and no modal forms are used (will have got to, may have got to, could have got to, etc.).

Note that "will have to" would fit in the blank, but not "will have got to".

Those forms might be used in the sense of arrival, however (She will have got to Bombay by 8 o'clock tonight. / They hung up before I could answer. I should have got to the phone sooner.), or in the sense of obtaining a benefit (If I had been there earlier, I would have got to meet some movie stars).

Omar Ahmed
2. What did the convict admit? - He admitted stealing a meat pie.
Is the question mentioned above correct? Shouldn't it be "What did the convict admit doing?" ?

In my variety of English we usually admit to doing something, so I'd probably have asked one of the following:

What did the convict admit to?
What did the convict admit to doing?

Nevertheless I recognize What did the convict admit? and What did the convict admit doing? as possible. So I'd say the version you're asking about is correct, though strange to my ear.

CJ

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