MUST questions – English Grammar Profiler

In the English Grammar Profile, there are two points in the category of Modality at B2 which are practically the same and include the same examples.

Point 147 is:

‘must’ the question form.

Point 161 is:

‘must’ to ask about obligation and necessity.

Notice that most must question examples in the TED corpus are much more complex than yes/no questions:

I began to wonder, why must it be so binary?

TED

Can you wash tomorrow, or must it be today?

TED

What sort of talents must we be sure to defend?

TED

How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky?

TED

Well, how long must we wait?

TED

 How long must women wait for liberty?

TED

How much more suffering must we take?

TED

Why must it be so catchy?

TED

And what must that feel like? (speculation, certainty, deduction is probably C1)

TED

We consider the ability to use an adverb in the middle position at least C1 ability:

What must we gracefully exit out of to be fit for these futures?

TED

An iWeb cluster search for must * * * * ?does not give us the usual subject modal verb inversion: 1 MUST BE GOOD, RIGHT? 84 2 MUST BE TRUE, RIGHT? 76 3 MUST BE BETTER, RIGHT ? 45 4 MUST BE A BETTER WAY? 26

5 MUST BE DOING SOMETHING WRONG? 20

1 MUST I USE 186 2 MUST I TAKE 173 3 MUST I PAY 166 4 MUST I GO 154 5 MUST I WAIT 143 6 MUST WE WAIT 131 7 MUST YOU USE 107 8 MUST I SAY 100 9 MUST YOU GO 99 10 MUST WE GO 96 11 MUST YOU TAKE 87

14 MUST WE SAY 75 15 MUST I COMPLETE 73 16 MUST WE BELIEVE 72 17 MUST I SUBMIT 66 18 MUST I MAKE 65 19 MUST YOU MAKE 65 20 MUST WE FORGET 63 21 MUST WE THINK 61 22 MUST I KEEP 56 23 MUST WE MAKE 56 24 MUST I GET 52 25 MUST THEY THINK 52 26 MUST I GIVE 51

29 MUST WE USE 50 30 MUST YOU PAY 50 31 MUST YOU KEEP 49 32 MUST I BUY 48 33 MUST I PUT 48 34 MUST I FILE 47 35 MUST I MEET 46 36 MUST IT FEEL 46 37 MUST WE GIVE 45 38 MUST I THINK 43 39 MUST I BRING 42 40 MUST I CHANGE 42