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John liao Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

may be doing?

This and the opened chest in the foreground of the painting suggest that the soldiers may be searching the house and helping themselves to the family's possessions.

I am confused with this tense: the soldiers may be searching
is it present progressive? Can the modal verb stand with any tense such as past simple, past progressive, past perfect, past perfect progressive, future simple, present progressive?
  

Top answer

I originally thought model verb can only be used in present, past and future tense, and some model verbs like could, might can only used in past tense in some situations.

— John liao

  • I originally thought model verb can only be used in present, past and future tense, and some model verbs like could, might can only used in past tense in some situations.
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2 Answers
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I originally thought model verb can only be used in present, past and future tense, and some model verbs like could, might can only used in past tense in some situations.
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john liaoI am confused with this tense
The modal verbs do not show tense in the same way as other verbs.

(Note. These are not model verbs. These are modal verbs.)

These verbs may have aspect (continuous, perfect), but not, strictly speaking, tense.
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