Timeline for Is it correct to say "The heater must have gone off."?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 23 at 23:27 | comment | added | Flater | This answer is looking at the wrong thing. This has nothing to do with "gone off", as "The heater has gone off" is a perfectly valid construction. The issue here is with the introduction of "must". The exact same principle applies in cases where "gone off" is not used, e.g. "he must have forgotten" or "she must have been killed". | |
| Jan 23 at 22:27 | comment | added | James Martin | In any case, the poster's question is not about the meaning - it's about why it's "must have" rather than "must has". The phrase they quote comes from the Cambridge dictionary (see the link in the question). | |
| Jan 23 at 22:17 | comment | added | Nibor | I'm British and use it regularly, maybe it's a regional thing. "I was late for work because my alarm didn't go off" and "the heating has gone off" are two phrases I've used recently. | |
| Jan 23 at 22:09 | comment | added | Mark Morgan Lloyd | I'm British. It's not. | |
| Jan 23 at 22:08 | comment | added | Nibor | Using "gone off" to mean turned off is common in British English, much less so in US and Canadian English. | |
| Jan 23 at 21:55 | history | answered | Mark Morgan Lloyd | CC BY-SA 4.0 |