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"When I was a child, I must eat everything on my plate or I wouldn’t get any dessert." Find a part of the sentence that contains a mistake.

KillingTime
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  • This looks like a homework or assessment question which we do not answer. However I will give you a clue. Try comparing the tenses of the verbs. – BoldBen Mar 04 '21 at 12:03
  • As you should see from that earlier question, many perfectly competent native speakers really don't like using the degenerate verb "must" as a past tense. But other competent native speakers don't mind it - including Ralph Waldo Emerson, so we all have to accept it's at least "valid". In short, if you got this from a test, the test-setter doesn't know what he's talking about. – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '21 at 12:05
  • (I recall that until I actually looked into this and posted an answer on ELU nearly a decade ago, I had no idea that *mote* - as in arcane ceremonial So mote it be! - was actually the *Present* tense, and that originally *must* was a *Past* tense form only. Still fascinating, after all these years! :) – FumbleFingers Mar 04 '21 at 12:27

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