Rights, Duties and Rules: the Present Simple and Modal Verbs, and Silent Letters – Affairs of the Nation (Senior 6 English) | Ganzaa

Affairs of the Nation

Lessons

Senior 6 · English

Affairs of the Nation

4 lessons

Lesson 3 of 4

Rights, Duties and Rules: the Present Simple and Modal Verbs, and Silent Letters

25 min

Let's begin

Laws, constitutions and school rules share a grammar. They describe permanent arrangements in the present simple ("The Commission organises elections") and they state duties and permissions with modal verbs ("Candidates must …", "Members may …"). Read the charter below, written for an imagined school council, and notice how every sentence either describes a fact or sets a degree of duty.

Text: the charter of a student council

Charter of the Student Council, Groupe Scolaire Umucyo (an imagined school)

Article 1. The Student Council represents all the students of the school. It meets once a month during term.

Article 2. Every student has the right to vote in council elections. Candidates must be in S4, S5 or S6 and must not have been suspended in the current school year.

Article 3. Members are required to attend every meeting. A member who cannot attend has to inform the secretary in writing beforehand.

Article 4. The President of the Council shall chair all meetings and shall present a report to the head teacher at the end of each term.

Article 5. Members should consult their classmates before each meeting and ought to report back to them within a week.

Article 6. The Council may invite a teacher to any meeting, but it does not have to do so.

Article 7. Decisions are taken by a majority of the members present. They must be recorded in the minutes.

Article 8. No member may spend the Council's funds without the written approval of the Treasurer and the President.

Find two sentences that simply describe how the Council works, with no duty in them. Which tense do they use?
Find a phrase that means (a) it is compulsory, (b) it is a good idea, (c) it is allowed, (d) it is forbidden, (e) it is not necessary.

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For example "The Student Council represents all the students" and "It meets once a month" (Article 1), or "Decisions are taken by a majority" (Article 7). They use the present simple, active or passive.
(a) must, are required to, has to, shall; (b) should, ought to; (c) may; (d) must not, No member may; (e) does not have to.

Definition

present simple: the tense of facts, habits and permanent arrangements: The Council meets once a month. Its passive form is am, is, are + past participle: Decisions are taken by a majority.
modal verb: a helping verb that adds a speaker's judgement (necessity, permission, advice, possibility) to the main verb: must, shall, should, ought to, may, can, need. It is followed by the bare infinitive, with no to (except ought to).
semi-modal: a phrase that does the same job but behaves like an ordinary verb, so it changes for person and tense: have to, be required to, be allowed to, be supposed to, be entitled to.

How strong is the duty?

The rules

Meaning	Forms	Example	In the past
Obligation	must, have to, be required to, shall (laws)	Candidates must submit their applications to the Commission.	had to, was required to
Prohibition	must not, may not, cannot, not be allowed to	A prisoner may not register as a voter.	could not, was not allowed to
No obligation	don't have to, needn't, not be required to	The Council does not have to invite a teacher.	didn't have to, didn't need to
Advice, moral duty	should, ought to	Every citizen should check the provisional register.	should have + past participle (criticism)
Expectation	be supposed to, be expected to	Leaders are expected to report back to residents.	was supposed to (but did not)
Permission, entitlement	may, can, be allowed to, be entitled to	Observers may watch the count.	could, was allowed to

Bare infinitive after a modal: must register, never must to register or must registers. Modals never add -s: she must, not she musts.
Must or have to? Must shows the authority of the speaker or of a written rule; have to reports an obligation that comes from outside. Must has no past or future form, so use had to and will have to.
Mustn't is not the negative of must in meaning. You mustn't = it is forbidden. You don't have to = it is not necessary.
Modal passive: modal + be + past participle: Decisions must be recorded. Perfect passive for the past: The list should have been displayed last week.
Shall in a law or charter is a formal must: The President shall chair all meetings.

Worked example

Choosing the right modal. Complete: "Voters ___ bring their identity card, but they ___ bring a pen, because at Ishimwe's polling station pens are provided."

Bringing the identity card is a requirement of the procedure, so it is compulsory: must or have to.
Bringing a pen is not necessary, but it is not forbidden either. Mustn't would mean "it is forbidden", which is false. The meaning is "no obligation": don't have to or needn't.

Answer: Voters must bring their identity card, but they don't have to bring a pen, because at Ishimwe's polling station pens are provided.

Worked example

Making a rule formal with the modal passive. Rewrite: "The secretary has to write down every decision, and nobody can change the minutes afterwards."

Make the thing, not the person, the subject: every decision, the minutes.
Keep the modal and add be + past participle: has to write down becomes must be written down (a written rule prefers must); can change becomes may not be changed (formal prohibition).

Answer: Every decision must be written down by the secretary, and the minutes may not be changed afterwards.

Warning

Wrong: Citizens must to vote. Right: Citizens must vote. But: Citizens ought to vote.
Wrong: Yesterday we must attend a meeting. Right: Yesterday we had to attend a meeting.
Wrong: Do we must sign? Right: Must we sign? or Do we have to sign?
Should have is written with have, never of: should have, not should of. The two sound alike in fast speech.

Sounds and spelling: silent g, b, n and l

Some letters are written but not pronounced. Many of them survive from older pronunciations or from Latin and French spellings. Several appear in the vocabulary of civic life, which is why they turn up in this unit.

Silent letter	Where it usually hides	Examples (pronunciation)
g	before final n, and gn at the start of a word	campaign /kæmˈpeɪn/, sign /saɪn/, foreign /ˈfɒrən/, sovereign /ˈsɒvrɪn/, reign /reɪn/, gnaw /nɔː/
b	after m at the end of a word, and before t	thumb /θʌm/, climb /klaɪm/, bomb /bɒm/, debt /det/, doubt /daʊt/, subtle /ˈsʌtl/
n	after m at the end of a word	column /ˈkɒləm/, condemn /kənˈdem/, autumn /ˈɔːtəm/, solemn /ˈsɒləm/, hymn /hɪm/
l	in -alk, -alm, -alf and in could, should, would	talk /tɔːk/, calm /kɑːm/, half /hɑːf/, should /ʃʊd/, would /wʊd/, salmon /ˈsæmən/

Tip

Ask the longer relative. A silent letter often wakes up in a longer word from the same family, so the family tells you how to spell the short word: sign → signature, design → designate, bomb → bombard, condemn → condemnation, autumn → autumnal, hymn → hymnal, column → columnist. And government keeps its n because it is govern + -ment, however quickly people say it.

'Have to' and 'must', from BBC Learning English's 6 Minute Grammar (6 minutes). Listen for the difference the presenters draw between an obligation the speaker feels and one that comes from outside, and compare it with rule 2 above.

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Practice

Choose: (a) You ___ (mustn't / don't have to) show your card to a friend, but you ___ (must / should) show it to the polling officer. (b) Observers ___ (may / must) watch the count if they wish.
Correct the mistakes: (a) Every candidate must to submits an application. (b) Last year the council must meet twice in one week. (c) The list should of been displayed earlier.
Explain the difference in meaning: Members must not invite a teacher. / Members do not have to invite a teacher.
Rewrite in the modal passive, starting with the words given: (a) "Officials must count the votes in public." The votes … (b) "Someone should have repaired the channel before the rains." The channel …
Write three articles for a charter of your school's debating club: one obligation, one prohibition and one piece of advice. Use a different form for each.
Which letter is silent in each word? campaign, doubt, condemn, calm, foreign, subtle, autumn, would.
Give a longer word from the same family in which the silent letter is pronounced: sign, bomb, condemn.
A resident says: "The sector should have told us about the meeting." Is she giving advice, describing a rule or criticising something in the past? Explain how the grammar shows it.

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(a) don't have to; must. (b) may.
(a) Every candidate must submit an application. (b) Last year the council had to meet twice in one week. (c) The list should have been displayed earlier.
Must not: inviting a teacher is forbidden. Do not have to: inviting a teacher is allowed but not necessary.
(a) The votes must be counted in public (by officials). (b) The channel should have been repaired before the rains.
Model: (1) Members are required to attend every debate. (2) Speakers may not use a mobile phone during a speech. (3) Members should read a newspaper every week.
campaign: g; doubt: b; condemn: n; calm: l; foreign: g; subtle: b; autumn: n; would: l.
signature (or signal), bombard, condemnation.
She is criticising the past: should have + past participle refers to something that was the right thing to do but did not happen.

Sources and credits

Charter of an imagined student council, grammar rules and tables, duty-scale diagram, worked examples, silent-letter table and practice written by Ganzaa. Pronunciations are in British English IPA.
Video: 'Have to' and 'must': 6 Minute Grammar, BBC Learning English, embedded from YouTube.

1Text: the charter of a student council

2How strong is the duty?

3The rules

4Sounds and spelling: silent g, b, n and l

Text: the charter of a student council

How strong is the duty?

The rules

Sounds and spelling: silent g, b, n and l