Seem

Question

She may have seemed told about that. She could have seemed...She must have...Are they correct?

Fivejedjon · Accepted Answer

No, I don't know what you are trying to say, I'm afraid,

Amir Oghlow · Answer

I saw a sentence written like that.
"We're not proud of those choices although they may have seemed justified at the moment."
Does "...have seemed justified..." have the same meaning as "...have been justified..."?

Fivejedjon · Answer

No. The verbs SEEM and BE have different meanings.

Amir Oghlow · Answer

Okay, With what does the sentence replace?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Amir OghlowShe may have seemed told about that.

Maybe you meant this:

It may seem that she was told about that.

CalifJim · Answer

She is pretty. / She seems pretty.
She was pretty. / She seemed pretty.
She may be pretty. / She may seem pretty.
She may have been pretty. / She may have seemed pretty.
She must be pretty. / She must seem pretty.
She must have been pretty. / She must have seemed pretty.

You can substitute other adjectives for "pretty" in the sentences above: tall, short, young, old, happy, sad, ...
____________

You can substitute past participles for "pretty" in the first of each pair above: told, seen, heard, found, invited, ...
is told, was told, ... may have been seen, must be seen, ... was found, may be found, ... may have been invited, ...

There are OK because a form of be with the past participle of a transitive verb creates passive voice forms.
_____________

But you cannot substitute past participles for "pretty" in the second of each pair above.
seems told, may have seemed told, ... must have seemed found, ... seems heard, ... may seem invited, ...

These are all WRONG. "seem" cannot be used as an auxiliary verb in this way.
______________

If you want to include "seem" in modal constructions, you need the following patterns. Not all of them are equally useful in ordinary conversations, however.

It seems that she may be told.
It seems that she may have been told.
It seems that she must be found.
It seems that she must have been found.

It may seem that she was heard.
It may have seemed that she was heard.
It must seem that she was invited.
It must have seemed that she was invited.

CJ

Seem

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