Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Be obliged to

404g

Be obliged to

normally refers to obligations originating outside of the speaker. It

occurs mostly in formal contexts:

Washington, spacious and green, is a cosmopolitan and pleasing city. People

still come here because they 

are obliged to; they stay on because they have

come to love the place.

When you’re on a pedestrian crossing, the driver

’s legally obliged to stop.

The negative form not obliged to means that something is not necessary or

obligatory:

You 

are not obliged to answer.

The negative form obliged not to means that something must not be done/is

prohibited:

You 

are obliged not to inform anyone of this decision.

674 | Modality

Cambridge Grammar of English

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