The changing verb phrase in present-day British English

FTFs and matching corpus examples for MUST, HAVE TO and HAVE GOT TO

If you have arrived at this page and are not sure what an FTF is and what it can be used for, you might find it useful to read more about them on our FTFs page before reading this page.

MUST

Instances of MUST can be retrieved from the corpus using a simple text search or an FTF like the one in figure 1. Note that a text search for MUST* (where * = 'wildcard') will find instances of MUST and MUSTN'T. To exclude cases of MUSTN'T from our study, the wildcard was not included in our search term. Matching examples retrieved from the corpus are given in figures 2 and 3, and further examples are listed below.


Figure 1. FTF for MUST.


Figure 2. Example from DCPSE retrieved using the FTF in figure 1: It must be.


Figure 3: Example from DCPSE retrieved using the FTF in figure 1: My boss had said you must read those books.

Examples

<DCPSE:DL-D08 #0093:1:C> I 'm not suggesting that you should have helped him but I 'm quite certain that when you 'd heard he 'd died there must have been a bit of you that have said <,,> I killed him <,,> <,,>

<DCPSE:DL-E02 #0015:1:B> and I think at the right moment we must ask the country for <,> a new mandate <,,>

<DCPSE:DL-F08 #0314:1:A> <laugh> <,,> must be a nasty surprIse though for a motorist going along a moorland road <,> at the dead of night <,> to suddenly find a wallaby jUmping out in front of him

<DCPSE:DL-B36 #0272:1:A> Jesus <,> that must have come as a surprise

<DCPSE:DL-B36 #0115:1:B> my impression is that if we can find a a good scheme now and time 's running out we really must get it concluded mustn't we

<DCPSE:DI-B16 #0169:1:A> God it must 've been awful in those days

<DCPSE:DI-B19 #0249:1:B> There must be bu buses going along Mansfield Road

<DCPSE:DI-B31 #0093:1:B> you must let me photograph your baby for my magazine

<DCPSE:DI-B36 #0068:1:A> Obviously when you 're singing your vowels must be a little more open than when you 're speaking <,> otherwise it 's Ooooo

<DCPSE:DI-J10 #0003:1:A> To reach it on foot you must navigate hundreds of miles across a perishing sub-zero landscape of blizzards open water crevasses and drifting ice
<,,>

HAVE TO

Instances of HAVE TO can be retrieved from the corpus using an FTF like the one in figure 4. HAS TO and 'VE TO can be collected by replacing HAVE in figure 4 with HAS and *'VE, respectively. Matching examples retrieved from the corpus are given in figures 5 and 6, and further examples are listed below.


Figure 4: FTF for HAVE TO.


Figure 5: Example from DCPSE retrieved using the FTF in figure 4: Sorry we have to stop.


Figure 6: Example from DCPSE retrieved using the FTF in figure 4: I have to say I never had a career.

Examples

<DCPSE:DL-A01 #0463:2:C> you have to make the article agree with an adjective and the adjective agree with a noun

<DCPSE:DL-A07 #0148:1:B> they say nasty things like you have to have a good second-class degree

<DCPSE:DL-B09 #0106:1:A> no <,,> you have to stop <,> don't you

<DCPSE:DL-B22 #0905:1:A> darling you have to hold your head down

<DCPSE:DL-F02 #0344:1:A> I think John we have to get inside the penalty area to get most goals in football <,,>

<DCPSE:DI-A01 #0077:1:B> so it 's very often <,> the able-bodied people coming who have to <,> let go of certain notions <,>

<DCPSE:DI-A06 #0179:1:A> What you have to do is maybe check <,> say in if say you wanted to do a course in London at say the Institute of Education or at uh uh uh uh uh King 's or wherever

<DCPSE:DI-B26 #0041:1:B> And I mean you have to be a pretty efficient manager of time to do that and that 's not really Bernard 's strong point

<DCPSE:DI-B31 #0020:1:A> I have to say that I have done all mine

<DCPSE:DI-D01 #0111:2:B> And retailers ' expectations point to some modest recovery in July but you have to bear that <,> in mind that their expectations have not fully been met since since March

HAVE GOT TO

Instances of HAVE GOT TO can be retrieved from the corpus using an FTF like the one in figure 7. There is no need to specify that the first AUX is HAVE, because there is no other choice in the language. Matching examples retrieved from the corpus are given in figures 8 and 9.


Figure 7: FTF for HAVE GOT TO.


Figure 8: Example from DCPSE retrieved using the FTF in figure 4: You've got to analyse it like this.


Figure 9: Example from DCPSE retrieved using the FTF in figure 4: I've got to get some.

Examples

<DCPSE:DL-B14 #0343:1:B> and if he wants if he wants to take say this one he 's got to do everything in between

<DCPSE:DL-B22 #0818:1:B> you 've got to give me that darling

<DCPSE:DL-B26 #0228:1:A> we 've got to get a baby-sitter though <,>

<DCPSE:DL-B35 #0137:1:B> I think you 've got to be very honest with yourself and not <,> not many people are prepared to be because <,> it brings in their personal life

<DCPSE:DL-B36 #0411:1:A> it 's got to be a mortice lock <,> uh that is <,> uh a decent mortice lock for something secure

<DCPSE:DI-A02 #0131:2:B> in a lot of other contact-based dance work you can actually cheat and not <,> give your weight fully or uhm take weight fully <,> and it becomes a bit <,> sort of nothingy whereas with this you 've really got to <,> put your whole body <,> into it and you can't sort of just be thinking <,> sort of intellectually on the side thinking

<DCPSE:DI-A07 #0094:1:B> Pretty much yeah I 've got to admit

<DCPSE:DI-A08 #0123:1:A> Uh and then having got that at the end of the day it 's got to be your decision anyway <,> because I won't enter into a contract that says you ought to go and do that <,,>

<DCPSE:DI-A18 #0029:1:A> I 've got to actually find some phones to plug in

<DCPSE:DI-B20 #0328:1:B> It 's her birthday so I 've got to try and find think about what to get her

A summary of the results from this study are available here.

This page last modified 14 May, 2020 by Jill Bowie.