"has to" as a helping verb?

Question

0 In the sentence, "She has to eat salad every day," would "has to" be a helping verb for the action verb "eat?"  Initially "to eat" looks like an infinitive, but isn't "has to" another way of saying "must," which would make it a helping verb?02br02br00Thanks! 0-

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

0Hello Anon02br
02br
00The verb "have" in your sentence acts as a modal verb. As a modal verb, it takes an infinitive:02br
02br
001. She eats salad every day. ] A simple statement about a regular occurrence.02br
02br
002. She 01u00has to eat02u00 salad every day. ] We now learn something about the eating: it's something she's compelled to do.02br
02br
00When "have" acts as a modal verb, the pronunciation is slightly different:02br
02br
003. She has to eat salad] the S in "has" is a hissing noise.02br
02br
004. She has eaten the salad ] the s in "has" sounds like a Z.02br
02br
005. We have to eat salad every day ] the V in "have" sounds like an F.02br
02br
006. We have eaten the salad ] the V sounds like the v in "love".02br
02br
00MrP0-

Milky · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Anonymous12cite10In the sentence, "She has to eat salad every day," would "has to" be a helping verb for the action verb "eat?" Initially "to eat" looks like an infinitive, but isn't "has to" another way of saying "must," which would make it a helping verb? Thanks!12blockquote

10"Have/has/had (to)" is not a member of the main group of modal auxiliary verbs, but is known by many as a "semi-modal auxiliary". Another name for "auxiliary verb" is "helping verb". So, you are right, "have (to)" is a helping verb. 02br
02br
00"Have to" is normally used for subjective obligation or necessity, e.g. when a person feels he/she is obliged to do something or something is necessary, and "must" (in one use) is used for expressing objective obligation or necessity. that is, when the obligation or necessity is placed upon us by another person. However, it seems that a few American English speakers do not distinguish between those uses.0-

MrPedantic · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Milky12cite12br
10"Have to" is normally used for subjective obligation or necessity, e.g. when a person feels he/she is obliged to do something or something is necessary, and "must" (in one use) is used for expressing objective obligation or necessity. that is, when the obligation or necessity is placed upon us by another person. 12br
12br
10It's an attractive theory, Milky; but would you say it holds true of all these examples?12br
12br
11i10______________________________________________12i12br
12br
101 the chance to grow up graciously. He had to acquire everything he was going to12br
102 ng man had so little time to learn he had to be curious; he had to find out. Th12br
103 internal combustion became cheap, he had to be near a railroad siding and a tr12br
104 cut two-thirds of the rail lines he had to break and Sherman lived in mortal 12br
105 ain Chandler long to realize that he had to carry a heavy load of tradition on 12br
106 job too big for his imagination; he had to cling to routine, tested procedures12br
107 e slowly. He rose from his chair. He had to cough then; he went to the window 12br
108 prepared for almost any emergency. He had to depend on himself, since he was in12br
109 on. He had to make Jess talk, and he had to do it before Stacey Black got curi12br
1010 y as many as six strokes. Now all he had to do was finish in even par to collec12br
1011 n by Blue Throat and his gang. All he had to do was light the fuses of the dyna12br
1012 g with them he never knew whether he had to do with a Frenchman or with a devi12br
1013 ox this time. When he finally did he had to duck his head quickly away as the 12br
1014 ast the moment was postponed when he had to face the mystery of the power tools12br
1015 'dikkat to the door of the cabin. He had to fight the bliss of super-condamine12br
1016 me to learn he had to be curious; he had to find out. The Secretary did not te12br
1017 e sight of the beloved bishop. But he had to follow the light. Unless *** expec12br
1018 cratic procedure in the beginning he had to go along with their decision- afte12br
1019 The cave in his stomach hurt. He had to go into the water. He'd tell Sabel12br
1020 fuses, however, he hesitated. He had to have fusion power to catch up with 12br
1021 r to catch up with the skiff, and he had to have it fast. But fusion power in 12br
1022 of customers waited on and that if he had to he would jerk open the door and dr12br
1023 them- make them toe the line, as he had to- if he knuckled under to this smal12br
1024 gait he moved quickly enough when he had to. It is not in the record, but he m12br
1025 the piazza looking at Santa Maria he had to keep a straight face, not letting 12br
1026 Crosson's office to explain that he had to leave, but there was now such a pa12br
1027 he couldn't limit himself to it. He had to look for other prospects, other mot12br
1028 road by a high barbed-wire fence. He had to make for the section of road just 12br
1029 n problems to pay much attention. He had to make Jess talk, and he had to do it12br
1030 at in order to retain the account he had to pad his invoices and pay the exces12br
1031 ng down on his extra reading, for he had to pick through several columns of on12br
1032 im- even the court of Louis /15,!- he had to play a role of self-effacement. 12br
1033 Sir Giles Overreach (how often had he had to play that part, who did not believ12br
1034 e city and then rose toward home, he had to pull over to the curb and wait for 12br
1035 o be it now, any second, and what he had to remember was to keep his eye on the12br
1036 ld answer; if, as often happened, he had to repeat because he had spoken too s12br
1037 ding operations of the Government he had to resort to borrowing small sums fro12br
1038 the muggy Washington weather, and he had to return to the dry climate of the W12br
1039 said, Lewis reports. That was all he had to say. In answer to a New York Ti12br
1040 rojects failed, that much of what he had to show his country and the world wou12br
1041 f that after all there was no *** he had to speak for and that he was just an 12br
1042 and. But there was one thing that he had to stress, and that was that the contr12br
1043 and among the first to come out. He had to study the recordings of the langua12br
1044 as not stone. He was not unmoved. He had to teach himself patiently that these12br
1045 nter of the company, such stories he had to tell. He had sold oil stock to Bob12br
1046 gs were hard to find. Hudson knew he had to use these men as long as he remain12br
1047 ely to painting. Like many others, he had to work hard, long hours in a struggl12br
1048 nearly fell. Inside the passage, he had to work his way over the fallen timbe12br
1049 that"? "I don't have a lemon". He had to write very small to get it on the 11pre
11i10___________________12i12pre
11pre
10 12pre
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12blockquote

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Ryanz0r · Answer

0 Basically, here the verb "have" (in this case conjugated as "has") is synonymous to the verb "must," explaining that the action is obligatory. The difference is that "have/has" in this context is followed by an infinitive verb (in this case "01b01i00to 02i02b00eat"), whereas "must" is followed by a standardised verb ("eat" on its own, in other words without "to").02br
02br
00"He has to eat."02br
00"He must eat."0-

Milky · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10MrPedantic12cite11blockquote
11cite20Milky22cite22br
20"Have to" is normally used for subjective obligation or necessity, e.g. when a person feels he/she is obliged to do something or something is necessary, and "must" (in one use) is used for expressing objective obligation or necessity. that is, when the obligation or necessity is placed upon us by another person. 22br
22br
20It's an attractive theory, Milky; but would you say it holds true of all these examples?22br
22br
21i20______________________________________________22i20 21pre
20 22pre
22br
22br
20Hard to tell, as so many of those examples are too short. I'm talking about the 21i20General Semantic Meaning22i20 (see M Lewis) of those forms in BrEng.. I showed the prototypical meaning of each of those forms, but that which happens in numerous contexts and with varied speakers is often hard to track.22br
22br
22blockquote
22blockquote

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Milky · Answer

0 "MrPedantic" It's an attractive theory, Milky; but would you say it holds true of all these examples? 02br
02br
01i00______________________________________________02i02br
02br
00So, tell me what you think about a few of them. 02br
02br
001 the chance to grow up graciously. He had to acquire everything he was going to02br
02br
01font00Subjective (personal) belief, on the part of the speaker, or influenced by objective (social) fact ?02font02br
02br
002 ng man had so little time to learn he had to be curious; he had to find out. Th02br
02br
01font00Subjective (personal) belief, on the part of the speaker, or influenced by objective (social) fact ?02font02br
02br
003 internal combustion became cheap, he had to be near a railroad siding and a tr02br
02br
01font00Subjective (personal) belief, on the part of the speaker, or influenced by objective (social) fact ?02font02br
01font02font02br
02br
004 cut two-thirds of the rail lines he had to break and Sherman lived in mortal 02br
02br
01font00Subjective (personal) belief, on the part of the speaker, or influenced by objective (social) fact ?02font02br
01font02font02br
02br
005 ain Chandler long to realize that he had to carry a heavy load of tradition on 02br
02br
01font00Subjective (personal) belief, on the part of the speaker, or influenced by objective (social) fact ?02font02br
02br
01font02font0-

MrPedantic · Answer

0I would take those as subjective. But there seem to be some complications with "had to". It's often presented as the "past tense" of "must", e.g.02br
02br
001. "You must go directly to the headmaster's study and wait for me there."02br
02br
00Later: "He said I had to go directly to the headmaster's study and wait for him there."02br
02br
00But:02br
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002. "You must not pass Go. You must not collect £200."02br
02br
00Later: ?"You had not to pass Go. You had not to collect £200." 02br
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00While "You didn't have to pass Go..." seems ambiguous: it can also read like a subjective opinion.02br
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00It's interesting in itself that we 01i00don't02i00 have a past form of "must". 02br
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00Cf. also this use of "had to":02br
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003 ...by Blue Throat and his gang. 01u00All he had to do02u00 was light the fuses of the dynamite...02br
02br
00Here, the sense of the underlined part is "all there remained for him to do": an objective requirement, but not an objective compulsion.02br
02br
00MrP0-

Milky · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Milky12cite12br
11blockquote
11cite20Anonymous22cite20In the sentence, "She has to eat salad every day," would "has to" be a helping verb for the action verb "eat?" Initially "to eat" looks like an infinitive, but isn't "has to" another way of saying "must," which would make it a helping verb? Thanks!22blockquote
20"Have/has/had (to)" is not a member of the main group of modal auxiliary verbs, but is known by many as a "semi-modal auxiliary". Another name for "auxiliary verb" is "helping verb". So, you are right, "have (to)" is a helping verb. 12br
12br
10"Must" is normally used for subjective obligation or necessity, e.g. when a person feels he/she is obliged to do something or something is necessary, and "have to" (in one use) is used for expressing objective obligation or necessity. that is, when the obligation or necessity is placed upon us by another person. However, it seems that a few American English speakers do not distinguish between those uses.12br
12br
12blockquote

10Sorry, All. I've been sleeping badly the past few nights and have been typing tired nonsense. See my corrections above. 02br
02br
00Lesson to be learned: check one's posts before posting.0-

CalifJim · Answer

0 01blockquote

00it seems that a few American English speakers do not distinguish between those uses12blockquote

12br
00 Actually, the subjective/objective distinction is of extremely little importance to American speakers. Typically "must" is used as an epistemic modal almost exclusively in ordinary conversation, and "have to" as a deontic modal. That is, "must" is used to show logical necessity; "have to" is used to show situational requirements (objective, possibly?) or social obligation (subjective, possibly?). The two are interchanged at times but these interchanges are the variants, not the usual usage.02br
02br
00 CJ0-

Milky · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite11blockquote
10it seems that a few American English speakers do not distinguish between those uses22blockquote
20Actually, the subjective/objective distinction is of extremely little importance to American speakers. Typically "must" is used as an epistemic modal almost exclusively in ordinary conversation, and "have to" as a deontic modal. That is, "must" is used to show logical necessity; "have to" is used to show situational requirements (objective, possibly?) or social obligation (subjective, possibly?). The two are interchanged at times but these interchanges are the variants, not the usual usage.12br
12br
10CJ12br
12blockquote

10How confusing. The conflation of two modals. Why don't you just get rid of one of them?0-

"has to" as a helping verb?

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