Gerry should be home in an hour.
('Home' after 'should be' is making me confused.)
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2Take a look at ell.stackexchange.com/questions/40277/i-left-them-at-home, which looks at various cases of "home" being used without a prepostion.– James KCommented Aug 30, 2022 at 5:22
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1 Answer
Yes. If you specify a location where someone is, or other forms of to be, it always follows the verb, and goes before any temporal information ('in an hour' in your case).
Situations where it does not directly follow the verb are exceptions:
- In questions: "Are you home now?"
- Certain adverbs: "I am almost there."
answered Aug 30, 2022 at 5:20
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It in your answer refers to "be" as in the infinite (be) comes after the modal verb (should) or does it refer to the adverb "home"? The OP, I believe, is talking about this usage: He should be at work vs He should be home, They walked home vs They should walk to the store Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 5:53
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@Mari-LouA As I am sure you are aware, in Britain we would only say "He should be home" if it meant he had reached home. If we were indicating a person's whereabouts, unlike Americans, who would say "He should be home", we would say "He should be at home".– WS2Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 7:00