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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