Must and have to We use must or have to to say that we have an obligation to do something or that it is necessary to do something: I must

go home now. I have to make a speech. Sometimes there is a difference between must and have to. When we are stating our opinion that something is an obligation or is necessary, we use must: I must save some money. (= I think it is necessary.) We also use must when the authority comes from the speaker: You must revise for your exams. (= I say so.) When we are giving information about what someone else considers an obligation or a necessity, we use have to: I have to be at school at nine. (= This is a school rule.) We also use have to when the authority comes from outside the speaker: I have to revise for my exams. (= My parents say so.) We normally use have to for things that happen repeatedly, especially with adverbs such as often, always, regularly, etc.: I often have to help at home. We only use must to talk about the present and the future. To talk about obligation and necessity in the past, we use had to: It was a formal dinner so I had to wear a suit. Must has no infinitive, -ing forms or participles, so we make these forms with have to: I'll have to get up early every day next week. I hate having to wear a uniform. We make the question and negative forms of have to with do/does in the present and did in the past: Do you have to go now? I didn't have to leave early.

Mustn't and don't have to In the negative mustn't does not mean the same as don't/doesn't have to. Compare: You mustn't take those tablets. (= Don't take the tablets. It's forbidden.) You don't have to take those tablets. (= It isn't necessary to take the tablets.) Need to, don't need to and needn't We also use need to to talk about necessity: We need to buy a new car. We use don't need to/needn't when something is not necessary: You don't need to/needn't pick Jane up. She'll get a taxi. We can also use don't have to/haven't got to when there is no obligation or necessity to do something: You don't need to/needn't/don't have to/haven't got to buy me a present. We can also use needn't when we are giving someone permission not to do something: You needn't do the washing-up. I'll do it later. Didn't need to and needn't have We use needn't have + past participle to say that someone did something but it was not necessary: She needn't have made an appointment. (= It wasn't necessary to make an appointment, but she did.) We use didn't need to + infinitive to say that something was not necessary but we do not know if someone did it or not: She didn't need to make an appointment. (= It wasn't necessary to make an appointment; we don't know if she did or not.) Sometimes we use didn't need to when the action happened, even though it wasn't necessary: I got up at 6.30 a.m. yesterday. I didn't need to get up so early, as the meeting had been postponed. Remember! In informal English, we can use have got to instead of have to:

We've got to go now. Learning tip Talk to your friends about things that you have to and don't have to do, and about things you needn't have done and didn't need to do.

We use mustn't when there is an obligation not to do something, or to say that something is a bad idea: You must not talk in the library. You mustn't run at the swimming pool. It's dangerous. We use don't have to when it is not necessary to do something: You don't have to wear a suit tonight. It isn't a formal dinner. Remember! In informal English, we can also use haven't got to instead of don't have to. We haven't got to get up early tomorrow. Learning tip Talk to your friends about things that you mustn't do and things that you don't have to do. Use these ideas if you want to: - life at school/college/work - life at home - life in your town/city