have to
\ˈhæf tə\
The verdict
“have to” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Devoir, falloir, être obligé à. Avoir à.
Corpus desk
Index FR-have-to · have to · French
have to · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | have to |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ˈhæf tə\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « have to » en français
Rare enough to double-check
have to is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \ˈhæf tə\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Devoir, falloir, être obligé à. Avoir à.".
Zero misspellings are on record for have to in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is have to, spelled H-A-V-E- -T-O.
Definition
- 1Devoir, falloir, être obligé à. Avoir à.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how have to appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You have to drive me to the airport.
— Hello, I’m the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it so you don’t have to!
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.