Use modal verbs to show exactly how sure you are about a situation happening right now.
You often cannot know something for certain, but the evidence around you lets you make an intelligent guess. In English you do this with modal verbs of deduction: must, can't, might, may and could + the base form. Each one shows a different level of certainty — from near-proof to a faint possibility — in a single word.
This is one of the most useful B2 speaking skills. A detective, a doctor and a friend guessing why you look upset all do the same thing: they read the clues and reach a conclusion. Master these modals and you can speculate naturally instead of repeating "maybe" again and again.
Fix the shape of each modal in your mind first. They all take the base form of the verb — no to, no -s — and continuous deductions add be + -ing.
| Modal | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| must | must + base form | She must be tired. |
| can't | can't + base form | He can't be serious. |
| might / may / could | might / may / could + base form | They might be at home. |
| continuous | must / might / can't + be + V-ing | He must be joking. |
Think of deduction as a ladder. At the top sits near-certainty; in the middle, simple possibility; at the bottom, near-impossibility. The modal you choose tells the listener exactly where on the ladder you stand.
| How sure? | Modal | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ~95% sure it IS true | must | The keys must be in the car. |
| possible (~50%) | might / may / could | The keys might be in the car. |
| ~95% sure it is NOT true | can't (couldn't) | The keys can't be in the car — I emptied it. |
These two are a pair: must is your confident "yes", and can't is your confident "no". The trap almost every learner falls into is using mustn't for a negative deduction — but for a confident "it is not true", English uses can't, never mustn't.
| Wrong ✗ | Right ✓ | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| He mustn't be at home. | He can't be at home. | a confident negative deduction uses can't. |
| That mustn't be true. | That can't be true. | impossibility → can't, not mustn't. |
| She mustn't be the manager. | She can't be the manager. | the opposite of deduction "must" is "can't". |
When you deduce about an action happening at this very moment, use the modal + be + -ing. It is the deduction cousin of the present continuous.
For present possibility, might, may and could are almost interchangeable. The classic mistake is using can for a specific present guess in a statement — but can does not do this job.
| Wrong ✗ | Right ✓ | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| She can be at work right now. | She may / might / could be at work. | a present guess uses might/may/could, not can. |
| It can be the postman. | It could be the postman. | one specific possibility → could/might/may. |
These are the errors B2 students still make with deduction. Check your own speaking and writing against every row.
| Wrong ✗ | Right ✓ | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| He mustn't be German. | He can't be German. | a negative deduction uses can't. |
| She can be ill today. | She might be ill today. | present possibility uses might/may/could, not can. |
| That must to be expensive. | That must be expensive. | modals take the base form, no "to". |
| He must is joking. | He must be joking. | after a modal use "be", never "is". |
| They could to be right. | They could be right. | no "to" after could. |
Two friends stand outside a building, guessing what is happening in a flat upstairs. Read it twice and watch the certainty shift: a confident must, a confident can't, a cautious might, and a deduction in progress with must be + -ing.
Choose the correct answer. — 10 questions, each one is marked instantly. Questions get harder as you go.
Learn the words, then use them to deduce things out loud with must, can't, might and could.
Write 8 sentences in which you deduce things about a person, a place or a situation from clues. Use at least 8 of the words above.
Sentence starters (you can begin with these):
Değerlendirme öğretmenin tarafından yapılacak. (Your teacher will review your task.)
Read the text, then answer the questions.
Good readers prepare before they start. Before you read, think about these three questions (you do not need to write the answers):
Words to spot (from the Speaking section): clue · evidence · assume · suspect · obvious · conclude · reasonable · jump to conclusions
My neighbour on the fourth floor is a mystery, yet every day she leaves tiny clues about her life. I have never spoken to her; nevertheless, I feel I know a great deal about her routine.
I did not set out to study her. Our building is old and narrow, and the walls are so thin that you learn your neighbours' habits whether you want to or not. At first I noticed nothing more than a door closing softly at dawn. Then, without quite deciding to, I began to collect small observations the way other people collect stamps. A lift that stops on her floor, a light that switches off at a fixed hour, a shopping bag left briefly by the mat — each detail seemed to add a line to a portrait I was slowly sketching in my mind. I want to make one thing clear from the start: I am not spying, nor am I obsessed. I simply cannot help reading the small signs that everyone leaves behind, and, being human, I cannot resist turning those signs into a story.
She must be a doctor. Every morning she leaves at exactly six, and she always carries a hospital badge. Moreover, she often comes home in pale green scrubs, so the evidence seems obvious. She can't be a night worker, because her lights go off early and the flat is silent by ten.
The more I think about it, the stronger the case for the hospital seems. Twice I have seen her return with a paper cup of coffee and the particular grey tiredness that only long shifts produce; her shoulders drop, and she leans against the wall while she searches for her keys. On another occasion a small parcel was delivered to her door, addressed with the title 'Dr' printed clearly above her surname. That single word felt like a confession. Of course, a title on a parcel is not absolute proof — she could be a researcher, a lecturer, or a dentist rather than a hospital doctor — but taken together with the badge and the scrubs, the picture is difficult to argue with. When several separate clues all point in the same direction, a reasonable person is entitled to feel fairly confident, even without direct evidence.
Some things are less certain. She might be a runner, since a pair of muddy trainers usually sits by her door; however, they could simply belong to a visitor. I suspect she has a cat, although I have never seen it. There is dry food on her balcony, therefore an animal must live there.
There are other clues too, though they refuse to settle into a tidy conclusion. A guitar case appeared on her landing one weekend and vanished by Monday; it may be hers, or it may belong to a friend who was passing through. Sometimes I hear two sets of footsteps late in the evening, which makes me wonder whether she lives alone at all. Once, a child's drawing was taped to the inside of her window for a few days, then quietly disappeared. Each of these details opens a door to a different explanation. She could be a musician as well as a doctor; she might share the flat with a partner; she may simply be looking after a relative's child. The honest truth is that I cannot rank these possibilities, because every clue that seems to prove one theory can just as easily support another. Ambiguous evidence is the rule, not the exception, when you watch a stranger from a distance.
I could be wrong about all of this, of course. It is easy to jump to conclusions from a handful of details, whereas a careful person waits for real proof. My friend says I assume too much. 'You don't know her,' he warns, 'so you can't be sure.'
He enjoys reminding me of the times my confident guesses have collapsed. Last winter I was certain the man in the flat below was a retired soldier, purely because he polished his shoes on the step and stood very straight; it turned out he had spent forty years selling insurance and had never once worn a uniform. 'You build whole lives out of shoe polish,' my friend teased. 'One day you'll meet these people and discover they are nothing like your inventions.' I laughed, because he was right. A single habit can have a hundred causes, and the story I prefer is rarely the only one that fits. Deduction, I have learned, is a tool that must be handled with care: it can lead you to the truth, but it can lead you just as smoothly to a comfortable, convincing mistake.
What fascinates me most is how the language of guessing changes with the strength of the evidence. When a clue is overwhelming, I catch myself thinking she 'must' be exhausted or she 'can't' have slept; when the signs are thin, I soften at once into 'might', 'may' or 'could'. These small words are not mere decoration. They are honest labels for how sure I really am, and I have noticed that careless people drop the labels altogether, announcing their guesses as if they were facts. A good detective, real or imagined, does the opposite: the weaker the proof, the more cautious the wording. Perhaps that is the whole art of it — not to know everything, but to know exactly how much you do not know, and to say so plainly.
And yet I keep playing. Watching people, and guessing gently at their lives, is one of the quiet pleasures of living close to strangers. It costs nothing, it harms no one, and it makes an ordinary staircase feel faintly full of stories. Perhaps that is the real reason I do it: not because I need to know the answer, but because the not-knowing is so pleasant to fill. The mystery is more generous than any fact could be, since a fact can only be one thing, while a mystery can be everything at once.
He may have a point. Still, deducing a stranger's life from small hints is a harmless game. She may be nothing like the person I imagine; the quiet doctor might, in fact, be a musician who simply hates noise. The truth is probably ordinary — yet guessing is far more fun.
Choose the correct answer.
Are these sentences true or false, according to the text?
Complete each sentence with ONE word from the text. Choose the right modal or linking word of deduction (must / can't / might / therefore).
Write your answer in your own words. These questions are not marked automatically.
1. What evidence makes the narrator so sure his neighbour is a doctor?
2. Why does the narrator say he "could be wrong about all of this"?
3. Do you think it is fair to guess about strangers like this? Why or why not?
Find these connectors in the text — each one appears at least once: however, therefore, nevertheless, although, whereas, moreover, since, yet. (You will use these same connectors in the Writing section.) Note them down, then check.
Haruka asks Mark about Zen, an idea he first discovered at university.
You will hear a conversation: Haruka asks Mark to explain Zen — what it is, where it comes from, and why it is so hard to practise. You will listen TWICE. First listen: answer questions 1-5. Second listen: answer questions 6-10. (Kaydı İKİ kez dinleyeceksin: ilk dinlemede 1-5, ikinci dinlemede 6-10.)
Write and submit your paragraph; your teacher will review it.
At B1 you linked ideas with and, but, so, because. At B2 you sound noticeably more advanced when you use formal, precise connectors. Four of them are essential this unit — and two familiar ones, although and however, become sharper tools.
| Connector | Use it to... | Example |
|---|---|---|
| moreover | add a stronger, extra point | She wears scrubs. Moreover, she carries a hospital badge. |
| therefore | show a logical result | The lights are off; therefore, they must be out. |
| whereas | contrast two ideas directly | He guesses freely, whereas I wait for proof. |
| nevertheless | say "in spite of that" | I've never met her. Nevertheless, I know her routine. |
| although | concede a point inside one sentence | Although I have no proof, she must be a doctor. |
| however | contrast between two sentences | She might be a runner. However, the shoes could be a friend's. |
See the difference — the same facts, written two ways:
| Basic linking ✗ | Confident B2 writing ✓ |
|---|---|
| I see a man on the train. He has a case. He must be a musician. He is quiet. Maybe he is shy. | There is a man I see on the train, and he always carries a heavy case; therefore, he must be a musician. Although he never speaks, he could simply be shy. Moreover, the other regulars chat freely, whereas he stays silent. |
A "deduction" paragraph has three parts. The skeleton stays the same — you change the content, not the structure:
| Part | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Opening | Introduce the person and your main confident deduction | There is a woman I often see, and she must be a musician. |
| 2. Body | Give the clues and your deductions. Use must and can't for confident conclusions, might / may / could for possibilities, and must be + -ing for actions now. Link with B2 connectors. | She carries a violin case; therefore, she can't be a tourist. She might be a student, although I'm not sure. |
| 3. Closing | Admit that you could be wrong — a careful conclusion | Of course, I could be completely wrong; I may be jumping to conclusions. |
Write about a person you often see but have never spoken to — a neighbour, someone on your commute, or a regular at a café. Deduce things about their life from the clues, and mix the deduction modals of this unit.
Değerlendirme öğretmenin tarafından yapılacak. (Your teacher will evaluate your writing.)
Mixed questions from the whole unit, then check what you can do.
14 questions: grammar + vocabulary + reading + listening. Each question is marked instantly.
Tick what you can do now. Honest answers help your teacher.
İşaretlemediğin madde varsa ilgili bölüme dönüp tekrar çalış — soldaki menüden her bölüme geri dönebilirsin.
Oturum kontrol ediliyor...