📋 Grammar A2-23: have to / don’t have to

The twenty-third material of the Fleydo A2 grammar series, and the one that turns must into a system. It rests on two ideas. The first is that have to only sounds like a rule word: it is built like an everyday verb, so it takes -s after he, she and it, it borrows do, does and did for negatives and questions, and it has a past form that must does not have. A four-column table conjugates play, have to and must side by side until the third column visibly collapses. The second idea is the one that costs marks for years: mustn’t and don’t have to are not two ways of saying the same thing. Mustn’t closes a door, don’t have to opens one, and a compare-and-verdict pair tests both against four extra words — but you can if you want. A four-step procedure decides every sentence, and three worked examples run a positive, a negative and a question through it step by step, showing why the helper word always sends have back to its plain shape. Practice is spread over four sets of eight, seven, eight and eight explained items, plus ten club rules to sort into obligation and free choice, six transformation cards that stay hidden until the learner commits, six real errors to repair and three traps. A tap-and-explain notice from a climbing club shows all three forms working in natural writing. Teacher notes give a 45-minute sequence, the two-column board move, a two-second demonstration at the classroom door, and the Cambridge A2 Key relevance.