In Regards^x, Modal verbs^x

Thanks for the links, Casi. Very interesting. It wouldn't surprise me if there were something in what you say about dialect variation. Previous threads have shown that different people hear conditional and modal verbs slightly differently. And it's no advantage to MrX to feel 'pastness' in...

Not sure what you are interested in here. must be > should be > may be in decreasing order of necessity to possibility. (These are completely impressionistic values. There is nothing mathematically accurate about them!) must be / has to be - 100% or almost 100%; should be / ought to be - ...