Post #198

🔰 Must/Have to 🔻We can use‘must’to show that we are certain something is true. We are making a logical deduction based upon some clear evidence or reason. 🔹There’s no heating on. You must be freezing. 🔹You must be worried that she is so late coming home. 🔹I can’t remember what I did with it. I must be getting old. 🔹It must be nice to live in Florida. 🔻We also use‘must’to express a strong obligation. When we use‘must’this usually means that some personal circumstance makes the obligation necessary (and the speaker almost certainly agrees with the obligation.) 🔹I must go to bed earlier. 🔹They must do something about it. 🔹You must come and see us some time. 🔹I must say, I don’t think you were very nice to him. 🔻We can also use‘have to’to express a strong obligation. When we use‘have to’this usually means that some external circumstance makes the obligation necessary. 🔹I have to arrive at work at 9 sharp. My boss is very strict. 🔹We have to give him our answer today or lose out on the contract. 🔹You have to pass your exams or the university will not accept you. 🔹I have to send a report to Head Office every week. 🔻In British English, we often use‘have got to’to mean the same as‘have to’. 🔹I’ve got to take this book back to the library or I’ll get a fine. 🔹We’ve got to finish now as somebody else needs this room. 🔻We can also use‘will have to’to talk about strong obligations. Like‘must’this usually means that that some personal circumstance makes the obligation necessary. (Remember that‘will’ is often used to show ‘willingness’.) 🔹I’ll have to speak to him. 🔹We’ll have to have lunch and catch up on all the gossip. 🔹They’ll have to do something about it. 🔹I’ll have to get back to you on that. 🔻As you can see, the differences between the present forms are sometimes very small and very subtle. However, there is a huge difference in the negative forms. 🔻We use‘mustn’t’to express strong obligations NOT to do something. 🔹We mustn’t talk about it. It’s confidential. 🔹I mustn’t eat chocolate. It’s bad for me. 🔹You mustn’t phone me at work. We aren’t allowed personal calls. 🔹They mustn’t see us talking or they’ll suspect something. 🔻We use‘don’t have to’(or‘haven’t got to’in British English) to state that there is NO obligation or necessity. 🔹We don’t have to get there on time. The boss is away today. 🔹I don’t have to listen to this. I’m leaving. 🔹You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. 🔹He doesn’t have to sign anything if he doesn’t want to at this stage. 🔹I haven’t got to go. Only if I want to. @EnglishGrammarSecrets