We know that it can be seen as bossy or insensitive to use the word, 'must' to someone else.. 'You must tidy your room.' That seems like an order and we try to be more sensitive towards other people nowdays .. We are told that the word, 'must' can put pressure on people, even ourselves... 'I must make sure I do some ironing today.' That can make us feel like failures if we don't get to do the ironing or whatever - so again perhaps it's now a little un PC?
But what really got my attention was... I was writing an email to the college where I will go to study the next level of my course and I said, 'I will come in if I really have to, but if I don't have to then I would rather not.' The grammar/spellcheck thingy prompted me to change 'really have to' to just 'must' as in, 'I will come in if I must.' And you know, it just seemed so old fashioned to me, somehow unnatural.. So I wonder if this is one of those subtle changes of language that we see - language evolving?
ANyone else have any thoughts? Does it matter?
