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Sun 21 Jan, 2007 02:37 am
Is it correct to say: "I had just woken them up, so they must have been having breakfast."?
There was a multiple choice test in which one of the underlined words was grammatically incorrect.
The test: "I had just woken them up, so they must be having breakfast."
I told my students that the first one, i.e. "I had" should be changed into "I have".
My student said, "What if we keep "I had" and change the verb phrase "must be having" into another structure denoting real past.
Now my question is: Can we do what he said? How?
Yes. That is correct. If you keep "had" in the first clause of the sentence, the verb phrase must change as you suggest.
Yes,
either
.... had woken...........must have been having...........
or
.....have woken...........must be having.............
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