25. Focus on: phrasal verbs and haveto,have got to,andmust

Have to, have got to, and must have two important uses in English. One is familiar to most students, the other is not.

But before discussing that, let's pay special attention to have got to. Have to and have got to mean exactly the same thing. Both are commonly used, and both are acceptable standard English. Have to derives from have, and have got to derives from have got. So why the got in have got to? A good question. Got in have got to means nothing and serves no purpose whatever. Have got to is a unique, idiomat­ic variation of have to. There is no point in trying to understand the grammar of have got to because there isn't any. Like other idioms, it must simply be memo­rized. Though have to and have got to mean the same thing, their forms are differ­ent, especially in questions and negative sentences. In the examples below, the contracted forms are the most common in everyday spoken English:

Requirement

Have to, have got to, and must are both used to say that something is required, necessary, mandatory — there is no choice in the matter:

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You have to make up the test.

You've got to make up the test.

You must make up the test.

Although most students learn this use of must early in their studies, it is actually the least common way to use must. Both have to and have got to are much more commonly used for this purpose.

Near certainty

The other important use of have to, have got to, and must is to say that something is 99 percent certain — that based on the facts and based on what we see and know, no other conclusion is possible about something. We are 99 percent certain, and all we need is confirmation to be 100 percent certain:

Janice, you have been working for 12 hours without a break. You have to be tired. (A logical assumption, but until Janice confirms that she is tired, the speaker cannot be 100 percent certain.)

/ would never take that book out of this room. It's got to be here somewhere. (A logical assumption, but until the speaker finds the book, he cannot be 100 percent certain that it is in the room.) That man is from Japan. I've never spoken with him, but he must speak Japanese. (A logical assumption, but until the speaker hears the man speaking Japanese, he cannot be 100 percent certain.)

When have to, have got to, and must are used in this way, it is must that is more common than the others. Have to and have got to, when used for this purpose, have greater emphasis and are used for dramatic effect:

Mark has to be the biggest idiot in the entire world.

Where is Lydia? She's got to be here somewhere.

Infinitive____________________________________________

present tense -ing form past tense past participle