🙌🏻 BUSTING THE 'MUST' vs 'HAVE TO' MYTH 🙌🏻
Hello my dear friends! I hope you're all feeling fine! I've been thinking a lot recently about this bloody MUST vs HAVE to lark in spoken English and carried out some thorough research and low and behold, my hunch was proved correct!😎
📖 We are taught in books that MUST is from some internal/personal obligation (we're only dealing with the affirmative here) and HAVE TO is from some external one. Yep, all books will tell you this. When you go through blogs, Instagram channels etc that explain the difference, 99.9% of the time, they will regurgitate the info found in books from gems like Michael Swan. Interestingly enough, I always had some 'discomfort' teaching this...
🇬🇧 Now, how would the average native speaker respond if you asked them the difference between MUST and HAVE TO?
👉🏻 Many wouldn't know what you're talking about.
👉🏻 Many might give you some answer off the cuff with no substance.
👉🏻 Native English teachers would regurgitate info from books without really thinking about it.
❓ Is there a difference in spoken English then❓
NO! But read on!
Just by saying:
👉🏻 I MUST do my homework
👉🏻 I HAVE TO /'VE GOT TO do my homework
We see these as being exactly the same!
Firstly, no native would ever feel a internal or external obligation. It wouldn't cross our minds. The degree in which MUST might be internal and HAVE TO external lies mainly with intonation and qualifying adverbs! Funnily enough, it's often just a personal choice.
👉🏻 I MUST lose some weight! (Because I want to fit into my pants.)
👉🏻 I HAVE TO lose some weight! (Because my mum told me so.)
We can also say:
👉🏻 I MUST lose some weight! (Because my mum told me so.)
👉🏻 I HAVE TO lose some weight! (Because I want to fit into my pants.)
✅ Native speakers see those examples with identical meaning and no sense of internal or external obligation. How we stress these models/semi-modals governs the intensity of obligation:
👉🏻 I Must lose some weight! (really stressing the M adds obligation regardless of internal or external)
👉🏻 I Have to lose some weight! (Stressing the HAVE also adds obligation regardless of internal or external)
Again, by doing this the meaning is exactly the same.
🤓 Let's see what happens if I soften them with an adverb. Do they still carry an identical meaning?
👉🏻 I REALLY must lose some weight! (not stressing the M in must, now it might sound like an internal obligation.)
👉🏻 I REALLY have to lose some weight! (not stressing HAVE, but with this being softer, it also sounds like an internal obligation.)
Yes, they have an identical meaning!
👩🏫 During my research, a librarian was asked and said she can use MUST as in 'You must be quiet, there are other students studying!" referring to the library rules. Our grammar books tell us, we'd ought to be using HAVE TO here. This point proves that in everyday spoken English, we can use MUST when we talk about external obligations and HAVE TO for internal ones.
Now, can I make MUST have an internal obligation and HAVE to an external one? Easily!!!
👉🏻 You really must work harder, Paul, because it's important for me!
👉🏻 You really have to work harder, Paul, because it's the law and you'll be arrested!
(Yep, only a full context can differentiate them 😎)
✅ Conclusion ✅
So without any further context like I just gave above, MUST and HAVE TO are exactly the same! Shock horror!
🤩🙌🏻 A huge thank you to my dear mate James who helped carry out my survey among 200 at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School in the English and Foreign Language Faculty. I'll bring you all some Chak-Chak next time I'm back! ❤❤❤
