Must and have to
- 1. MUST AND HAVE TO
- 2. MUST 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 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
- 3. 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 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)
- 4. HAVE TO 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 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
- 5. 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 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.
- 6. MUST AND HAVE TO As you can see, the differences between the present forms are sometimes very small. However, there is a huge difference in the negative forms.
- 7. 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. We use mustn't to express strong obligations NOT to do something We use don't have to to state that there is NO obligation or necessity 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