Tenses Home M U S T
We use "must" to express strong obligation.
| You must help me! Must you do that? |
Be careful! The negative has a completely different meaning:
| You must not park your car on a double yellow line! |
= It is forbidden. If you want to say that someone has no obligation to do something, you say:
| You don't have to tell me your age. Yesterday I didn't have to go to the bank. |
(We often use the verb "have" because "must" is an incomplete verb.) Next >
M U S T
Compare with "have to" to express obligation...
double yellow line
In Britain, a double yellow line means "No Parking at any time".
You don't have
You could also say "You haven't got..."
Check the form with
Listen to what people say in which situations, and pay attention to which words have
emphasis.
have
Often we say "have to".
This is really to help remember that you say "have TO do" (compared with
"must do").
incomplete
"Must" has no infinitive, no past, no participles, no gerund.
I don't like to have to say "no".
Yesterday I had to ring Japan.
We are having to increase production.
Having to learn all this is difficult!