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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Can/Must

There someone at the door. It can/must be the postman.

The answer is "must".

But I think that's wrong. You can't who is at the door, right?
  

Top answer

Anonymous But I think that's wrong. No. It's correct.

— CalifJim

  • Anonymous But I think that's wrong.
  • No.
  • It's correct.
  • You can't know who is at the door, but you can deduce (make an educated guess about) who it is from your own knowledge.
  • 'must' simply indicates that you have used your sense of logic to deduce what is happening.
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3 Answers
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AnonymousBut I think that's wrong.
No. It's correct. You can't know who is at the door, but you can deduce (make an educated guess about) who it is from your own knowledge. 'must' simply indicates that you have used your sense of logic to deduce what is happening. Maybe the speaker is expecting the postman at this time of day, for example.

Besides
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We can't use "can"? Why? Why it should be "could"?

And maybe I didn't expect a post or something like that. I just guessed i, it doesn't seem logical to me.
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AnonymousWe can't use "can"? Why? Why it should be "could"?
There's no point in arguing with the facts. We simply use may, might, or (sometimes) could to indicate "maybe", i.e., guesses. Maybe it's not logical, but that's how it works.

CJ
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