Must Have to and Should for Obligation and Advice in English

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about the

differences between must have to and

should I’m also going to talk quickly

about the negative forms I’m going to

focus on comparing the very similar

meanings of these words so let’s get

started first let’s talk about must must

in the negative we say must not so must

or must not in British English you may

hear mustn’t mustn’t but we don’t really

use this in American English we usually

use must not when we want to use this

pattern so we use must and must not

first for official rules official rules

means for example rules at a company or

rules at a school rules at the airport

police so law related rules like things

that are related to your society so

official rules we use must and must not

to explain these rules for example

passengers must show passports at

immigration passengers must show

passports at immigration this shows it’s

an official rule all passengers must

show they have a responsibility it’s the

rule must expresses this it’s a formal

rule like statement must not then

visitors must not wear shoes inside

visitors must not wear shoes inside so

that means visitors must take their

shoes off before coming inside so must

not wear shoes inside means not allowed

it is prohibited you may not it’s not

allowed so may not means it’s like less

formal than must not must not is much

stronger I’m not going to cover me in

this one so must not is more formal it

sounds

or rule like official rule like the

second use of must and must not is for

strong personal advice strong is the key

here I’m going to talk more about

personal advice later in this lesson but

when you want to express strong personal

advice you can use must or must not for

example like visiting a doctor’s office

or maybe some other kind of health

related issue or something that’s very

important to someone’s life you can use

must and must not to express advice in

those situations for example you must

stop smoking you must stop smoking so

this might be advice strong personal

advice for a very heavy smoker someone

who smokes a lot

you must stop smoking or you’ll die or

you must stop smoking or you’re going to

get much more sick for example another

one you must not forget to take this

medicine you must not forget to take

this medicine so that means you have a

responsibility it’s very important to

take this medicine you must not forget

to take this medicine so we use this for

strong personal advice so strong is an

important key word here we don’t use

must for like everyday general advice I

will talk about that later so official

rules strong personal advice this is how

we use must and must not let’s continue

to the second point for this lesson

which is has to in the negative don’t

have to for different subjects doesn’t

have to in the negative and in the

positive has to the same rules will

apply to need to as well me to also have

got to in British English so let’s look

at how we use this we use have to and

the negative don’t have to to talk about

responsibilities responsibilities so

this can mean school responsibilities

work responsibilities

like relationship responsibilities

family responsibilities the things that

we have some kind of obligation to do so

in many cases we don’t want to do these

things but there’s some need there’s

some responsibilities

for example I have to go to work I have

to go to work have to shows it’s a

responsibility I have to go to work she

has to leave early she has to leave

early she has a responsibility to leave

early she has to so as I said when she

or he or it is the subject we conjugate

the verb we change the verb from have to

hatch she has to leave early these show

a responsibility of some kind so many

learners asked like can I use must here

I must go to work she must leave early

it’s not grammatically incorrect to say

must I must go to work but because we

use must for official rules and for like

strong personal advice it sounds kind of

strange to use must here like I have to

go to work that’s an everyday regular

responsibility when we make like a

sentence like I must go to work it

sounds like there’s a very like strong

reason or there’s a very official reason

I must go so you might hear that in

movies like in epic big-scale like

fantasy stories there’s someone fighting

a war for example or there’s someone

with a really big responsibility they

might say I must go in those cases and

when they’re using like an old style of

English fine but in everyday English

using I must before some of like your

responsibilities sounds pretty strange

so I don’t recommend it in most cases if

you want to sound funny you can say

something like I must go to work but in

most cases I would not recommend it I

have to go to work

sounds much more natural or she must go

or she must

leave early it sounds way too formal

so please use has to or have to to talk

about your everyday responsibilities now

let’s look at negative negatives so

again don’t have to is like the I

subject version I don’t have to we don’t

have to they don’t have to if your

subject is he she or it it becomes

doesn’t have to he doesn’t have to she

doesn’t have to

so examples he doesn’t have to come he

doesn’t have to come this means he has

no responsibility to come it’s okay he

doesn’t have to come no responsibility

he can but he doesn’t have to that’s

what this communicates he doesn’t have

to come same thing here we don’t have to

leave yet so yet shows it’s okay now we

don’t have to leave yet maybe later

later we don’t have to leave yet again

we can but we don’t have to there’s no

responsibility there so an important

point about the negative with have to or

need to is that when you make a negative

with this pattern make sure you’re

talking about a common or a regular

responsibility we use these patterns we

use this have to this negative half -

pattern for things that we can

reasonably be expected to have a

responsibility to do so an example I

have heard from students from learners

is something like this I don’t have to

drink alcohol at work I don’t have to

drink alcohol at work so for grammar

this sentence is correct the sentence is

grammatically perfect there’s no

communication problem it’s a great

sentence but this sounds strange because

for most people drinking alcohol at work

is not a regular responsibility I mean

unless unless you’re like a bartender or

you’re someone who works with alcohol

like a wine sommelier whatever but for

most people in this example drinking

alcohol at

is not a regular responsibility so it

sounds a little strange to say I don’t

have to drink alcohol at work we

typically we often regularly use have to

in the negative I don’t have to to talk

about our everyday responsibilities so

like I don’t have to get up early on the

weekends means I have no responsibility

to do that on the weekends or if you

have a holiday I don’t have to go to

work today that’s a much more common way

of using don’t have to so please keep

this point in mind make sure you’re

expressing a regular like a reasonable

expectation when you use the negative

form here okay so with that in mind

let’s continue to the last point for

this lesson the last point is about

should-should in the negative it should

not and we reduce should not - shouldn’t

shouldn’t should should not and

shouldn’t we use should and should not

for general advice general advice this

means everyday just regular life advice

so compare this to must and must not

which we use for very strong personal

advice in most cases in everyday life we

use should to talk about general advice

a suggestion a recommendation we use

should to talk about that we do not use

must to talk about that unless for some

reason it’s very very strong examples

you should go home you should go home

maybe you look sick you should go home

or he should take a day off he should

take a day off maybe he looks stressed

so using must in these cases would sound

strange because these are kind of

everyday small suggestions like you must

go home

that sounds very serious or he must take

a day off again sounds very serious why

did something happen so use should in

these cases also using have to in these

cases kind of sounds a little strange

• if I use half - here you have to go

home you have to go home like why do I

have a responsibility to go home it’s

kind of strange same thing here

he has to take a day off why like maybe

there’s some company rule he has to take

a day off

I don’t know but be careful make sure if

you’re giving just advice your opinion

just use should of course there are some

cases where you can use half - in place

of to make a stronger

recommendation this is useful when

you’re giving like a restaurant

recommendation and it sounds like this

you have to try this restaurant so that

sounds more like excited than you should

you should try this restaurant and you

have to try this restaurant have to

sound stronger because it’s like you’re

saying you have a responsibility to try

this restaurant you have to try this

restaurant or you have to try this

recipe it sounds a little stronger then

you should so you can use it in that way

but if you’re giving advice like based

on something you can see or if you’re

trying to give someone like career

advice maybe be careful with your use of

should and have to so have to shows like

you’re putting responsibility on that

person so it should is more like general

advice okay let’s look then at using

shouldn’t shouldn’t so as I said should

not reduces - shouldn’t shouldn’t we

shouldn’t talk so loudly we shouldn’t

talk so loudly so in this case we

shouldn’t that’s like advice for our

group maybe we’re talking very loudly

and one person says oh no we shouldn’t

talk so loudly so that’s giving advice

to the group we should talk more quietly

so we shouldn’t talk so loudly another

one she shouldn’t worry so much

she shouldn’t worry so much so it’s

general advice don’t worry so much is

another way to say that she shouldn’t

worry so much so again using something

like must not sounds way too serious

here

like we must not talk so loudly it’s for

strong personal advice so using must

here sounds very strange same thing here

she must not worry so much again very

strange because this is a very strong

sounding expression she must not worry

so much similarly using half to here we

don’t have to talk so loudly that

expresses lack of responsibility we

don’t have to talk so loudly but we can

is kind of the idea there so this

doesn’t sound natural same here she

doesn’t have to worry so much this could

be used perhaps she doesn’t have to

worry so much like you could say in for

example a work situation you have a

colleague a co-worker and she worries a

lot and you want to express to your

manager or to your team member she

doesn’t have to worry so much I can do

it like in that case maybe it’s natural

but if you’re giving general advice

shouldn’t sounds much better so keep

this in mind should and should not for

your general everyday advice for

recommendations have to and don’t have

to for your responsibilities must and

must not for official rules and for very

strong personal advice so I hope that

this introduction to these three

expressions helps you understand the

differences and the different feelings

and situations in which we use these so

if you have any questions or comments or

if you want to practice making some

sentences with these please feel free to

do so in the comment section of this

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lesson and I will see you again soon bye

bye

you

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