OBLIGATION AND NECESSITY

- Have to: to talk about all kinds of obligations (can be used in all tenses)
- Must to: to talk about obligation (only used in present tense)
- Need to: to talk about things that are necessary (can be used in all
tenses)
Have to and must to are similar. The diferrence between its is that must is
specially used when the speaker sees something as a personal obligations
Examples:
- I have to work every evening
They had to wait for two hours at the airport
- You must be more careful
- I need to buy some food for tonight
I have to start work 9.00 (an external obligation)
I must remember to book a table (a personal obligation, one that I impose on
myself)
NO OBLIGATION / NO NECESSITY
- Not have to: there is no obligation to do something
- Not need to: it´s not necessary to do something
- Needn´t + infinitive: without to, to say that is is not necessary to do
something
Examples:
- You don’t have to pay me now
- We don´t need to take the car- it´s walking distance from here
- You needn´t hurry. We have plety of time
PROHIBITION
- Mustn´t: something is prhibited, dangerous or wrong
Examples:
- You mustn´t be rude to customers
ADVICE
- Should / shouldn´t: to give some advice, or to say what we think is the
right thing for ourselves or for someone else to do
- Ought to / oughtn´t to: to give advice. The same meaning as should
- Must and have to: to give strong advide when we think it´s very important
that someone does something
Examples:
- You should try that new Vietnamese restaurant
- You ought to get a new phone
- When you’re in Venice, you must / have to have a drink at Harry´s Bar
CAN, COULD, AND BE ABLE TO
CAN
- To talk about ability, possibility and permission
- It only has a present form (wich can be used to talk about future) and a
past / conditional form (could)
- Can you… or could you… : to make request or ask for permission. Could
is more polite
- Can´t: to say we are sure that something is imppossible/not true
Must: the opposite of can´t
Examples.
- You can use a toothbrush to clean jewellery
- She could swim when she was three years old
- Can you give me a hand?
- It can´t be broken!
She must be at work now
BE ABLE TO
- In the present and past if we want to be more formal
Example:
- We are not able to supply the missing parts

COULD
- Could you…: to make a request or ask for permission in a polite form
- Couldn´t: to talk about ability on one specific occasion in the past
Examples:
- I couldn’t find the book I wanted in the shops, but I was able to buy it
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