“must not have been” can be used to express deduction or strong probability about a past event. In this sense, it suggests that based on the available evidence or logical reasoning, it is highly unlikely or impossible that a certain action or event occurred in the past.
For example, if someone says, “He must not have been at the meeting,” it implies that the speaker believes it is highly probable that he was not present based on the information or context available. It is a deduction made by the speaker.
Here is a contracted example that you can listen to:
It mustn’t have been much to give up, then.
A check in iWeb with an extra wild card * gives us the following low-frequency results:
1 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN CONVICTED 214
The following example shows that ‘deduction’ is not the only use for the structure, the usage is more of what was permitted in the past + passive.
The defendant must not have been convicted of any prior offenses in order to be eligible for the rehabilitation program.
C2 vocabulary convicted
2 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY 140
3 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN A 113
4 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN USED 99
5 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED 60
6 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN TOO 54
7 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN VERY 45
8 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN THE 44
9 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN WORN 38
10 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN IN 35
11 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN PAYING 34
12 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN THAT 33
13 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN AN 31
14 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN EASY 29 EGP C2
15 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN CLEAR 27
16 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN AS 25
17 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN ON 24
18 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN TO 23
19 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN REMOVED 19
20 MUST NOT HAVE BEEN MODIFIED 18
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