Who made you?
Seven things people say they have no choice about. For each one, decide in two seconds: did somebody else impose this, or did the speaker impose it on themselves?
Do not think about grammar yet. Just sort them.
Match each obligation to where it actually comes from. Two of them are closer than they look.
Two people, two kinds of obligation
Kemal · a nurse on a hospital ward
I have to be on the ward at seven. I have to wash my hands between every patient — there is a protocol and there is an audit, and if you skip it somebody notices. I have to write everything down.
None of that is my choice. The hospital decided it, or the health service did, long before I got there.
The one thing that is mine: I must stop taking the extra shifts. I keep saying it. Nobody is making me stop and nobody would care if I did not.
Sofia · a translator who works for herself
Nobody makes me do anything, which is the problem. I do not have to start at nine. I do not have to stop at six. I do not have to get dressed.
So I invent the rules. I must be at the desk by half eight, or the whole day goes. I must not open the news before lunch. That one is mine and it is the hardest.
Last year it was different — I had to be in an office by nine, and honestly I miss it a little.
Four questions about the two texts. Answer from what is on the page, not from what you already believe.
1. Kemal uses have to for almost everything. Why?
2. Kemal switches to must for exactly one thing. Which?
3. Sofia says I do not have to start at nine. Is she forbidden to start at nine?
4. Sofia describes last year as I had to be in an office by nine. What is had to the past of?
The two systems
System one: whose rule. have to points outward — a contract, a law, a manager, the traffic. must points inward — the speaker is the authority, or is writing the rule down for somebody else to obey.
This is why signs say Passengers must not lean out of the window and people say I have to be at work at eight. The sign is the authority speaking. You are not.
Choosing between them
| You mean | Use | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Somebody else imposed this | have to | I have to wear a badge. The building decided. |
| I imposed this on myself | must | I must stop saying yes to everything. |
| A written rule, a notice, a sign | must | Visitors must report to reception. |
| Ordinary speech, any obligation | have to | The safe default. Far commoner when talking. |
| Any obligation, in the past | had to | There is no past form of must. |
| Any obligation, in the future | will have to | There is no future form of must either. |
The practical shortcut. If you are unsure, use have to. It is correct in almost every spoken situation, it has a past and a future, and it takes questions and negatives normally: Do you have to? I did not have to.
must is the one with holes in it. Save it for your own resolutions and for notices.
One to three words per gap. Decide who made the rule before you decide which form to write.
A sign at the entrance: All visitors sign in. Kemal, telling a friend about his job: I be on the ward at seven. Sofia, about a promise to herself: I stop working at weekends. Sofia, about last year: I be in an office by nine. Kemal, about next month: I redo the safety training.
Where must runs out. It has no past, no future, no infinitive and no -ing. Every one of those holes is filled by have to.
I musted work late. → I had to work late.I will must work late. → I will have to work late.I hate to must work late. → I hate having to work late.
Five sentences that try to make must do something it cannot. Rewrite each one.
1. Last week I must stay until nine every night.
2. Next year we will must renew all the certificates.
3. I do not like to must explain it twice.
4. She musted cancel the meeting.
5. Do you must work on Saturday?
What these sound like. Written, they are two words. Spoken at normal speed, they are one.
have to → /hæftə/ — the v turns into an f. has to → /hæstə/. had to → /hædtə/, and the first d nearly vanishes.
And mustn’t is /ˈmʌsnt/ — the first t is not pronounced at all. If you say all three consonants you will not sound careful, you will sound foreign.
Your teacher says each of these at natural speed. Match what you hear to what is actually written.
The negatives, once and for all
The two positives are close in meaning. The two negatives are opposites, and this is the pair that causes real trouble.
mustn’t — the not is on the action. Do not do it.don’t have to — the not is on the obligation. There is no rule; do it or do not, as you like.
One to three words per gap. Each sentence gives you the consequence — use it to decide.
You park in the ambulance bay; they will tow the car within ten minutes. You bring a laptop — there is one on every desk, but bring yours if you prefer it. You discuss patients outside the ward; it is a dismissal offence. You come to the Friday social, though most people do. You prop the fire door open, ever, for any reason.
Put the parts in order to make one sentence about a rule that no longer applies.
Two rules, two sources
Task card · Speaking · Pairs
Your partner does not know your workplace or your course. You are going to make them able to survive one day in it.
Six rules in ninety seconds: two that somebody else imposed, two that you imposed on yourself, one thing that is forbidden, and one thing that is genuinely optional.
- The imposed ones take
have to. The self-imposed ones takemust. Say which is which as you go. - Mark the forbidden one and the optional one clearly — your partner has to be able to tell them apart afterwards.
- Include one rule that used to exist and does not any more: We had to… but now we don’t have to.
Listener’s job. When your partner finishes, say back only two sentences: the forbidden thing, and the optional thing. If you get them the wrong way round, that is data, not failure — find out which word sent you wrong.
What the room produced
Four sentences of the kind this task always produces. Fix each, and be ready to say what it meant before you fixed it.
1. In my last job I must work every Saturday.
2. You don’t have to touch that machine — it is dangerous.
3. Do you must wear the uniform?
4. I must go to the meetings because my manager says.
Three decisions
Three questions. Thirty seconds.
1. You are telling a friend about a rule your company imposed. Which do you reach for?
2. Which sentence tells somebody a thing is optional?
3. How do you put must into the past?
Before next lesson. Write five sentences about your workplace with no modals in them at all — just descriptions of the place, the people and the things in it.
Next lesson is about the smallest words in those sentences, and about the ones you did not write.