Responsibilities and Obligations
Must and Have to
Must - Strong Personal Obligation
Use 'must' in the positive form to speak about strong personal obligations that you feel are crucial at the moment of speaking.
We must catch up with every other industrialized country in terms of health care.
I must include the indirect benefit I receive.
Have to - Responsibilities
'Have to' is used to indicate responsibilities at work. Use 'have to' to talk about daily responsibilities and obligation in general. 'Have to' is often confused with 'must'. The main difference is that 'have to' expresses obligation to work, family, friends, etc. 'Must' is used to indicate strong personal obligation that is felt at the moment of speaking.
'Have to' differs from other modal forms. 'Have to' is conjugated and followed by the base form.
Positive Form:
Maria has to track the financial output of a hundred different institutions every week.
Negative Form:
A good organization doesn't have to worry about public relations, but rather focuses on community involvement."
Question Form:
Do they have to run a public relations campaign?
Had to
When speaking in the past, there is only one way to express obligation: 'Had to' We use 'had to' when we speak about past responsibilities and strong personal obligations.
Example:
The publication had to send refund checks to subscribers when it ended.
Bob had to attend an internal benchmarking meeting in order to draft a plan to meet best practices.
Must vs. Have To
'Have to' expresses everyday responsibilities at work, or for family and friends. 'Must' is only used for strong personal obligations.
Example 'Have to' for Responsibilities:
The president has to set the tone of debate around public policy.
Maria has to track the financial output of a hundred different institutions every week.
Example 'Must' for Strong Obligations:
We must catch up with every other industrialized country in terms of health care.
I must include the indirect benefit I receive.
The difference between 'have to' and 'must' in the negative is extreme. 'Not have to' signifies a lack of obligation. 'Mustn't', on the other hand, signifies prohibition. The past form of both 'must' and 'have to' is 'had to'
Example 'Have to' for No Obligation:
We don't have to be ashamed of our interdependency.
A good organization doesn't have to worry about public relations, but rather focuses on community involvement."
Example 'Mustn't' for Prohibition:
The people mustn't be left out of public affairs.
We mustn't let our infrastructure fall into disrepair.