Correct Use of 'SUPPOSED TO' - With Examples, Exercises and Quiz - English Grammar

Hey there.

Many of you have asked me about the correct use of ‘supposed to’.

If you’re confused about this phrase, that’s because ‘supposed to’ is actually used

in four different ways.

So in this lesson, I will teach you all of these uses, and as always there is a quiz

at end of the video to check your understanding.

Alright, let’s get started.

Before we talk about the uses, you should first know the basic structure of this phrase.

The structure is ‘be’ plus ‘supposed to’ plus the main verb of the sentence in

its base form.

So you will always have some form of the verb ‘be’ at the beginning of the phrase – am,

is, are, was, or were.

So you should never say ‘have supposed to’ or ‘did supposed to’ or something like

that – you always need ‘be’.

But which form of ‘be’ you should use depends on the subject and the tense of the

sentence.

So let me ask you: what form of ‘be’ do we use with ‘I’ in the present?

We use ‘am’ so we say ‘am’ supposed to.

For the past, we say ‘was supposed to’.

What about for ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’?

‘Is’ in the present and ‘was’ in the past.

And for ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘they’?

‘Are’ in the present and ‘were’ in the past.

When I show you examples, it will be easy to understand these, but just remember that

you should always put the correct form of ‘be’ at the beginning of this phrase.

So let’s now look at the first use of ‘supposed to’ and it is to talk about duty, responsibility

or obligation, that means, things that you have to do.

For example, let’s say that I’m giving a lecture to a group of students.

And some of them start talking among themselves.

I might say: “You’re supposed to listen during the lecture, not talk.”

That means – “You have to listen” or “You must listen during the lecture.”

“You mustn’t talk.”

This is a present tense sentence, so here’s a past example.

Imagine that this gentleman is late to a meeting in his office.

His boss says: “Why are you late?

You were supposed to be here at 9 o’ clock.”

Notice that ‘you were supposed to’ expresses some responsibility he had in the past.

In this case, he failed to fulfil that responsibility – he was late.

Now, you might be thinking: can we use ‘supposed to’ to talk about the future?

Yes, we can.

But we just use a present tense form.

For example: “I’m supposed to give a speech at my best friend’s wedding next week.”

– so this expresses not a duty, but an obligation (something I have agreed to do) in the future

– give a speech.

Now, these sentences all express some positive duty, responsibility or obligation.

You can use the negative form ‘not supposed to’ to say that something is not allowed.

As in: “You’re not supposed to smoke in here.”

That means, “you’re not allowed to smoke in here.”

Or: “We are not supposed to feed the animals in the zoo.”

Again, it means that feeding the animals is against the rules of the zoo.

It can also be used in question forms.

For example: “When are we supposed to submit this assignment?”

Meaning, when do we have to or when do we need to submit this assignment?

A very common question that you will hear, especially when people are annoyed or irritated

is “What am I supposed to do?”

Now, imagine that I’m working in an office and a colleague of mine comes to me and says,

“Look at the printer.

It never works when I need to print something!”

So I say “What am I supposed to do?”

Right, I mean it’s not my fault; I didn’t make the printer, so why are you asking me?

Now, at this point, I want to alert you against a common error.

Many learners of English write ‘suppose to’ without the ‘d’ at the end of ‘supposed’.

When we talk, it’s difficult to say ‘supposed to’ so we drop that ‘d’ sound in natural

speech and we say it like ‘suppose to’.

But when you write, you should always write ‘supposed’ with the ‘d’.

Alright, so this is the first use.

Let’s turn to the second use – to talk about the intention or purpose of something.

For example: “What is a calculator supposed to do?”

That means, “What is a calculator meant to do?”

or “What is a calculator intended to do?”

or “What is the purpose of a calculator?”

– all of these mean the same thing.

So, can you answer that question –“What’s a calculator supposed to do?”

Well here’s my answer: “It’s supposed to help you do mathematical calculations quickly.”

“What are ATMs supposed to do?”

“They’re supposed to let a bank’s customers withdraw cash when they need it.”

“A company’s logo is supposed to help people easily identify its products.”

You can also talk about intention or purpose in the past: “The government’s new e-filing

website was supposed to make income tax payment simpler for citizens.”

That is, the purpose was to make it easier for people to pay their taxes.

“But many people say it has made the process more difficult!”

The important thing with this second use is that, here, we’re not talking about any

duty.

A calculator, for example, is a not a person – it has no sense of responsibility.

Instead, these sentences express the purposes of the various things.

And now, let’s move on to use number three: to talk about expectations and arrangements.

Here’s an example: “What am I supposed to write in a cover letter?”

That’s the letter you attach with your resume or CV when you apply for a job.

So the question means – “What am I expected to write in a cover letter?”

What does the recruiter expect?

“You’re supposed to say what job you want to apply for, and what relevant skills you

have.”

That’s what you are expected to write.

Here’s a past sentence: “The match was supposed to start at p.m. but it has been

delayed due to rain.”

That is, the arrangement was for match to begin at 5, so people expected that it would

start at that time, but it’s been delayed.”

We often use the negative form ‘not supposed to’ when something unexpected happens.

One of the fans in the stadium might say: “It wasn’t supposed to rain today!”

– that means: I saw the weather forecast last night on TV and weatherman said it would

be bright and sunny today, so I’m shocked and I’m disappointed that it’s raining.

So that’s the third use.

The fourth and final use of ‘supposed to’ is to talk about popular belief – that is,

what many people say, think or believe.

Here’s an example: “Harvard Business School is supposed to have the best MBA program in

the world.”

What does it mean?

It means the same thing as saying “Many people say or many people believe that Harvard

Business School has the best MBA program in the world.”

Another example: “This restaurant is supposed to serve fantastic sushi.”

That means a lot people say that the sushi is very good at this particular restaurant.

We also sometimes use this form when we want to express anger or frustration because the

popular belief happened to be wrong: “I got robbed in broad daylight in Canada once.

And it’s supposed to be one of the safest countries in the world!”

‘in broad daylight’ means ‘during the daytime’.

So I’m saying, “Many people think Canada is a really safe country, but look at what

happened to me – I got robbed.”

Alright, those are the four uses of ‘supposed to’ or ‘be supposed to’ which the complete

structure.

And, now, if you are ready, it’s time for the quiz.

There are eight sentences on the screen.

I want you to rewrite each sentence using ‘supposed to’.

Stop the video, write out your answers, then play the video again and check.

Alright, here are the answers.

How many did you get right?

Let me know in the comments.

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Happy learning and I will see you in another lesson soon.