B2 COURSE

Unit 55 - Modals (Obligation & Prohibition)

Modal Verbs of Obligation and Prohibition

Present Positive Negative

Strong obligation
(possibly based on the Prohibition
must/ speaker's opinion)
mustn't You mustn't smoke
I must study today
here

Strong obligation No obligation

(possibly from I don't have to work
have to/ authority/compulsory) on Sundays.
don't have to Children have to go to You don't have to eat
school. (sometimes anything you don't
'have got to') like.

We can use have to + infinitive, must + infinitive and should + infinitive to express obligation

(something you have to do).

Present &
Positive Negative
Future

Strong obligation (possibly No obligation

from outside) I don’t have to work on
have to /
don't have to Children have to go to school. Sundays.
You don’t have to eat
(sometimes 'have got to') anything you don’t like.

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 B2 COURSE
Unit 55 - Modals (Obligation & Prohibition)

Present &
Positive Negative
Future

Strong obligation (possibly

Negative obligation
must / based on the speaker’s opinion)
mustn't
I must study today. You mustn’t smoke here.

Mild obligation or advice Mild negative obligation or

should / advice
shouldn't You should save some You shouldn’t smoke so
money. much.

Be careful about the difference between mustn’t and don’t have to!

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 B2 COURSE
Unit 55 - Modals (Obligation & Prohibition)
Mustn’t means it’s not allowed, or it’s a bad idea:

You mustn’t eat so much chocolate, you’ll be sick.

Don’t have to means you don’t need to do something, but it’s fine if you want to do it:

I don’t have to get up early at the weekend(of course, if I want to get up early, that’s fine, but I can
stay in bed if I want).

VIDEO - Modal Verbs of Obligation

Past Positive Negative

Obligation in the past No obligation in the past

had to /
didn't have to I had to wear a school We didn’t have to go to
uniform when I was a child. school on Saturdays.

must* Changes to ‘had to’ -

A past action which didn’t A past action which didn’t

happen: the advice / regret is happen: the advice / regret is
should have + pp too late too late
/ shouldn’t have
You should have gone to You shouldn’t have taken
+ pp
bed earlier, now you have that job., it was a bad idea.
missed the train.

* Remember ‘must have done‘ is a modal verb of deduction or speculation, not obligation in the past.
For example: Julie must have left. Her coat’s not here.

VIDEO - Modal Verbs of Obligation in Films