Дипломная работа: Modal verbs

It has been a great blow to me that you haven’t been able to follow me in my business as I followed by father. Three generations, that would have been. But it wasn’t to be .

This meaning of to be to is rendered in Russian as сужд ено . It is mainly found in the past tense and its application is limited to narration. It occurs in affirmative and negative sentences and is followed by the simple infinitive.

4) Possibility

E.g. Her father was often to be seen in the bar of the Hotel Metropole.

Where is he to be found ?

Nothing was to be done under the circumstances.

Responsibilities and obligations possessed by the Soviet trade unions are to be envied. (Morning Star)

In this meaning to be to is equivalent to can or may. It is used in all kinds of sentences in the present and past tenses and is followed by the passive infinitive.

Here are some examples taken from the literary works:

‘Tell him to go to sleep’. – ‘She says you’re to go to sleep’. (D.H. Lawrence).

I could scarcely see her in the darkness, but when I rose to go – it was plain that I was not to linger – she stood in the orange light from the doorway. (F Scott Fitzgerald)

Must, to have to and to be to Compared.

The verbs must , to have to and to be to have one meaning in common, that of obligation. In the present tense the verbs come very close to each other in their use, though they preserve their specific shades of meaning. Thus must indicates obligation or necessity from the speaker’s viewpoint, i.e. it expresses obligation imposed by the speaker.

E.g. I must do it. (I want to do it).

He must do it himself.

To have to expresses obligation or necessity imposed by circumstances.

E.g. What a pity you have to go now (It is time for you to catch you train).

He has to do it himself. (He has got no one to help him).

To be to expresses obligation or necessity resulting from an arrangement.

E.g. We are to wait for them at the entrance. (We have arranged to meet there, so we must wait form them at the appointed place).

Sometimes the idea of obligation is absent and to be to expresses only a previously arranged plan.

E.g. We are to go the cinema tonight.

In the past tense, however, the difference in the use of the three verbs is quite considerable.

Must has no past tense. It is used in past-time contexts only in reported speech.

E.g. He said he must do it himself.

Had to + infinitive is generally used to denote an action which was realized in the past as a result of obligation or necessity imposed by circumstance.

E.g. I had to sell my car. (It was necessary for me to do it because I needed money).

He had to put on his raincoat. (It was raining hard outside and he would have got wet if he had not).