Have to vs. must?

[Alan]

Hi,

'Ought to' usually indicates another type of 'obligation'. This time it's a moral one. It's similar to 'should' and suggests it's the right and proper thing to do as in: You ought to respect your parents/You ought to set a good example to your children by the way you behave/You ought to pay your taxes and so on. It conveys the idea of duty.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story 'the' vs. 'a/an'

[Mallinathan]

Dear Mr.Alan,
That was too fast. I have no words to express my happiness.

Thanks and best regards
Mallinathan

[Walaa89]

I think that we can use "must", when we are talking about rules that should be done...
walaa

[Dia_Nad]

Dear Torsten,

Firstly, I want to ask you if I may answer you at post reply.

Secondly I answered 9 out of 10 modal questions.

Thank for your reply.
Diana

[Baldcoco]

gosh golly,
i knew i was seeing things: i most not be afraid! i have to be strong and keep up with these tests. i wonder if there is a way to skip a bunch of them and take a comprehensive one... i am curious if i can speed up the process... i am swimming as fast as i can...

[Houssem224]

[Gray]

Hi,

I am confused over the use of 'should' here:

I should go now because I am already late for my class.

Is it correct grammatically? And if yes, how is it different from 'must' and 'have to'? I have read the previous posts explaining that 'should' is similar to 'ought to' but do you think that 'should' is far more polite than 'must' and 'have to' or 'ought to'?

~Gray
_________________________
I love words, sounds envy me.
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First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English

[Sumade]

Dear Alan;
I want to thank you and all the friends working in this wonderful site. At least I understood the difference between must and have to. But I also want to say, that you have hard work to do with all the people writing. Some of them are just trying to learn (like me) but some of them make me feel unhappy, because they seem to be a little bit sophisticated. I read them here in this forum - at first I was very irritated, I get confused. I wished you didn't even let us read them because this great site may lose prestige or effectiveness.
On the other hand, why should you hide them.
Nevertheless I felt confused and demotivated in that moment.

Thank you again for helping us and being here - with us.

Best regards,
Sumade

[Mister Micawber]

.
What do you mean by 'sophisticated', Sumade? That word is not usually pejorative.
.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Sumade]

Hi Mister Micawber;

well, what I meant is that some people are making a kind of fighting with words. I said that according to someone who critisized Amy. I can not find the right word

I am happy to get help whenever I need in this site, and I don't want anybody to make your work bad.

[Mister Micawber]

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OK, how about 'contentious'? I am afraid that contentious members are an occasional feature of almost every forum website, Sumade. Actually, English-test.net is calmer than many other sites that I have visited!
.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Sumade]

Yessss, that is the word I was looking for thank you...

I like this site very much, and whoever loves to be contentious should first look at himself.

[Fulsheri]

hi here i found very well meant about must and have to.as per my opinion must is use for
compalsary which think you have needfull in your work.but my doubt is not clear for have to
please teach me properly beacuse have to is use more than time when we are commnucate with
another person .

[Raoudha]

Both "must" and "have to" express necessity, but we use them differently:
we use "must" when the speaker feels that something is necessary. "you must exercise (I'm telling you)". "We must be quiet (I'm telling you)".
we use "have to" when the situation makes something necessary. "I have to exercise (the doctor told me)". "We have to invite Laura and Jane. They invited us last time". "We have to be quiet (That's the rule)".
I/We must can also express a wish: We must invite her. She's wonderful company.

[RussianBear]

I'm not a native English speaker, but I humbly suggest that both "must" and "have to" fit this particular phrase well. I admit that one of the variants might be better, but I disagree with the statement that my answer ("must") was "incorrect".