Could you help me with this?

Question

I was told never to use "nobody" and "must have been" together as in,

Nobody must have felt comfortable about this. ? wrong
Nobody would have felt comfortable about this.? correct

Could you help me understand why?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

The negative of "must" is usually "can't" or "couldn't" rather than "mustn't" when it's used as an indicator of logical deduction.

That must have been George. (I deduce that it was surely George.)
That can't/couldn't have been George. (I deduce that it was surely not George.)
________

"nobody" has negative force, so it works the same way when it's the subject of a sentence.

Somebody must have unlocked the door. (I deduce that somebody unlocked it.)
Nobody can/could have unlocked the door. (I deduce that nobody unlocked it.)
[can have is rarely used in comparison with could have, so a native speaker would choose could have in the previous sentence.]
________

You wrote Nobody would instead of Nobody could. That variant leaves out, to some extent, the idea that you used your logical powers of deduction to arrive at that conclusion. It is correct, however.
________

Note that in some regions of the English speaking world, the sentence you marked 'wrong' might actually be used. That is, some people use "mustn't" instead of "can't" in that context. ([They mustn't / Nobody must] have known that we were going to start at 10.)

CJ

GPY · Answer

teacherJapanNobody must have felt comfortable about this. ? wrong Nobody would have felt comfortable about this.? correctCould you help me understand why?

It is not completely obvious to me whether you intend these sentences to refer to the speaker's belief about what happened (or didn't happen), or whether you might imagine them to mean something else.

TeacherJapan · Answer

Wow!  Thank you very much for such a detailed instruction!! I really appreciate your help!

Could you help me with this?

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