9.1. Auxiliary HAVE and Modal syntax

If we say that something must have been a fruit, it could be fruit, or it might have been fruit, only we do not know the kind, it is first of all our thought we manage.
Auxiliary HAVE can be quite some handle, to make Modal forms.

Let us begin with a picture for the infinitive and head time.

38. I remember to exercise.

Let us think about the effect of our exercise on ourselves. The exercise makes us physically fit and happy.

MAIN GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PRESENT
38a. I am happy to exercise.

If we recall our exercise as something prior, ■ANTECEDENT, we might say:

MAIN GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PRESENT
38b. I am happy to HAVE exercised.
(Naturally, we remember our happiness).

Auxiliary HAVE generally gives an auxiliary time extent, and it can make antecedent reference to grammatical main time, too. Antecedent time may be, but it does not have to be a past time. It is always antecedent to the main time, and that can be the grammatical Present, Past, or Future.

MAIN GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PAST
39. I was happy to have exercised

BUT

MAIN GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE FUTURE
40. I will be happy to have exercised.

To compare,
If we say we have learned something, we say we began learning some time before speaking about it, that is, the PRESENT.
If we will have learned, or we had learned something, respectively, we begin learning some time before a FUTURE or PAST time.

Let us return to our theory fruit. If we do not expect to find the stalk, our Modal frame for it will be closed. The theory time is over.

PROBABILITY
41. The handle MAY HAVE broken off.
41a. It MIGHT HAVE broken off.
41b. It COULD HAVE broken off.

Spring Flowing Colors

Let us compare some more Modal syntax.

CERTAINTY
42. The handle MUST HAVE broken off.

CONTINGENCY
43. You SHOULD HAVE checked on the handle.
43a. The handle OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN checked.
43b. You NEEDN’T HAVE manipulated the handle.

Let us now say we can see another theory fruit that has a stalk. We may guess,
44. This CAN / MAY / COULD / MIGHT be the handle.

The Modal frame here is open; we could say, the use for the stalk is an open matter, and altogether, when we see it, we can make more of some reasonable theory. Not even theoretical physics would go on without data.

Importantly, the Modal use depends on what we think or expect. Feel welcome to ■9.2. THE MODAL NET.

■This text is also available in Polish.

Book format in preparation.

In the first part of the language journey, feel welcome to consider a picture for
■ the grammatical Past, Present, and Future;
■ the Simple, Progressive, and Perfect;
■ infinitive, auxiliary, and head verb forms;
■ the Affirmative, Interrogative, Negative, and Negative Interrogative;
■ irregular verbs and vowel patterns: high and low, back and front.
Third edition, 2025.

The world may never have seen her original handwriting, if her skill was taken for supernatural. Feel welcome to Poems by Emily Dickinson prepared for print by Teresa Pelka: thematic stanzas, notes on the Greek and Latin inspiration, the correlative with Webster 1828, and the Aristotelian motif, Things perpetual — these are not in time, but in eternity.
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