Friday Message: How to express past obligation

ABA English: Friday Message | [ABA English]( [Friday Message 17/11/2017 Past Obligation: Had To]( Hello! I hope you are having a great Friday! Your progress: Beginners [Continue studying]( Today we are going to look at talking about past obligation. Remember that in the present we use the modal verb “must” and the verb “to have to” to express obligation. They are very similar in meaning but “must” indicates stronger obligation. Look at some examples: You must study more! If not, you will fail all your exams. I have to go to the supermarket this evening. I need to buy fruit, biscuits and milk. The past of both “must” and “to have to”, however, is the same: had to. Here are some examples: Last week I had to go to hospital as I broke my arm. We had to work hard in order to get a raise. You had to pass all your exams to become a doctor. To form questions, we use the following structure: Did + subject + have to + the base form of the verb, i.e. the infinitive without “to” For example, Did you have to get up early on Saturday morning? Did they have to study last night? “did not have to” or, with contraction, “didn’t have to” indicates that something was not necessary. For example, You didn’t have to help me but thank you anyway. It was very kind of you. We didn’t have to work yesterday because it was a bank holiday. I hope this has been helpful. For more on this please topic, take a look at [unit 71]( of our course. Have a lovely weekend! Bye for now! [Graham] Graham Weeks Your ABA Teacher Did you enjoy this class? Share it with your friends! [Twitter]( More resources Check out our blog for more English lessons: [Blog]( If you no longer wish to receive notifications from your teacher, click [here](.