- English Grammar Class
- Coursebook: English Grammar in Use
- Unit: 32
- Topic: Modal Auxiliary Verb: “Must, Mustn’t, Needn’t”
Must and mustn’t
You must do something= it is necessary that you do it:
Don’t tell anybody what I said. You must keep it a secret.
We haven’t got much time. We must hurry.
You mustn’t do something= it is necessary that you do not do it (so don’t do it):
You must keep it a secret. You mustn’t tell anyone. (=don’t tell anyone)
We must be very quiet. We mustn’t make any noise.
Needn’t and don’t need to
You needn’t do something= it’s not necessary to do it (but you can if you like):
We’ve got plenty of time. We needn’t hurry. (=it is not necessary to hurry)
Joe can stay here. He needn’t come with us. (=it is not necessary for him to come)
You can also use don’t/doesn’t need to = We don’t need to hurry.
Remember that we say don’t need to do I doesn’t need to do, but needn’t do (without to).
Needn’t have (done)
Study this example situation.
Hello, can I reserve a table for two, please?
We needn’t have reserved a table.
Paul and Sue decided to go to a restaurant. They reserved a table. But the restaurant was almost empty. So they needn’t have reserved a table. They needn’t have reserved a table. =They reserved a table, but this was not necessary.
Compare needn’t (do) and needn’t have (done):
Everything will be OK. You needn’t worry. (it is not necessary)
Everything was OK. You needn’t have worried. (you worried, but it was not necessary)
Needn’t have (done) and didn’t need to (do)
He needn’t have done something= he did it, but now we know that it was not necessary:
Why did he get up at 5 o’clock? He needn’t have got up so early. He could have stayed in bed longer.
He didn’t need to do something = it was not necessary to do it. It doesn’t matter whether he did it or not:
He didn’t need to get up early, so he didn’t.
He didn’t need to get up early, but it was a beautiful morning, so he did.
He didn’t have to … is also possible in these examples.