Recently I have heard following sentence:
"What other basic commands do you think she has to be told?
I do understand what does this sentence mean, but I do not fully understand what construction is it grammar-wise?
My guessing that it is "-have to + passive voice-" combination here, where "-have to-" is that "kind-of-modal-verb-but-overly-not", am I right here?
Also, if for some reason I would like to cut off modality from sentence, can I rephrase this sentence in following way (just for note, I want to point that someone already told her some instructions and now I am wondering what they exactly were):
"What other basic commands do you think she was told?
Best Answer
To have to X means to be required or forced to do X. It's often equivalent to must X.
One meaning of to have to be X is to be required or forced to have X completed or done.
Another meaning of to have to be X is to be required or forced that someone else does X to you. If there is no by phrase saying who, the default is by someone or by anyone.
Have isn't a modal. It can be a helping or auxillary verb as traditional grammar describes. Like do or be. I'm sure CEGL calls it something different. It's definitely not a modal because it's an option to use with modals. E.g. I could have gone and I could go are valid.
Your modals are: can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must, ought and a few other not-so-common ones like dare.
But have in addition to being a helping/auxillary verb is also a standalone verb, and you have have X and a phrasal variation have to X.
E.g. this works:
Yep, because you are asking about the what the commands are, not really anything else about the commands such as whether or not she had to do them.