Grammar Check!

Okay, last week, in the 3rd year classes, we were studying "must and must not." I was teaching only "must" and "must not" but in the book it also mentioned "mustn't." First of all, how do you spell the contracted form of "must not?" I had never used it to begin with, but if I were to spell it, it would be "musn't." I was going around checking the students' sentences, and I was correcting some of them because I "thought" they had too many "t's." I later found out that the proper way to spell it is "mustn't." (a student actually showed me the text book and corrected me.)

So, that got me thinking about my second question. Do native English speakers actually use the word "mustn't?" I never use it. Is it something that we actually learn in school as young children? To me, it sounds like something that people in the South would say. . . like, " Billy-Joe, you mustn't talk loudly in church." I don't think I've ever heard it in daily conversation at all. That makes me wonder, who wrote the text book? Maybe it's some Japanese person living in Georgia!