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have to

verb
HAF tuh/ˈhæf tə/

Formshas to, having to, had to

2 meanings of have to

Practice

  1. 1
    need to doverb
    To be required, obliged or strongly urged to do something, or to need to do it; used to express obligation.

    All visitors have to sign in at the front desk.

    She had to leave work early to pick up her son from daycare.

    Similargotta

    Note

    Where must runs out of forms, this verb takes over: it has a past (had to), a future (will have to, as in the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity of 1897) and a participle (having to). The construction is old, going back to Old English habban with tō. In casual speech, have got to, got to and gotta do the same job.

  2. 2
    must be trueverb
    Used with be to state a conclusion that seems logically certain.

    Someone's knocking at this hour? That has to be your brother.

    You've been working since six this morning, so you have to be exhausted.

    Similarmust, gotta

    Note

    Here the speaker is reasoning, not giving orders: that has to be the postman is a confident guess. The same words can carry the obligation meaning, so context decides: you have to be patient is advice, while you have to be exhausted is a conclusion. Must and be bound to draw the same kind of inference.

Practice

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Origin

Goes back at least to the Old English construction habban + tō, which already expressed obligation.