# supposed to
## English
### Etymology

From supposed and to, with fusion of /zdt/ to /s(t)t/ by regressive assimilation. Compare the devoicing in used to and have to/has to.

### Pronunciation

* (US) IPA: /səˈpoʊs(t) ˌtu/ (stressed)
* Audio (US); “be supposed to”:(file)
* (US) IPA: /səˈpoʊs tə/ (unstressed)

### Adjective

supposed to (not comparable)
* (idiomatic, passive voice) Expected to.
** Required to, obliged to, ought to.
    I am supposed to report to the police every week.
    Paul is supposed to call his mother every day.
    The phone is supposed to come with a manual.
*** a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, “A.D. 1612. Ætat. 52.”, in James Spedding, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, […]: The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon […], volume IV, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1858, →OCLC, page 287:[I]t behoveth to peruse […] how much the king hath more now when the whole benefit is supposed to go to him, than he had when three parts of the benefit went to the committee.
** (in the negative, preceded by "not") Permitted to.
    You are not supposed to smoke in the restaurant. [Note: this means, you are obliged not to smoke.]
** (in interrogative or similar situations) Able to, capable of (used to indicate that an expectation is impossible or unreasonable in the context).
    How am I supposed to work in all this racket?
    What was he supposed to do—just sit there and do nothing?
** Believed to; generally considered to; considered likely to.
    It's supposed to rain.
    The movie is supposed to be good.
    The thief is supposed to be hiding in the forest.
*** 1848, J. S. Skinner & Son, editor, The Plough, The Loom and the Anvil‎, volume I, Philadelphia: J. S. Skinner & Son, page 137:The great use of coffee in France is supposed to have abated the prevalency of the gravel, for where coffee is used as a constant beverage, the gravel and the gout are scarcely known.
** Intended to.
    The phone is supposed to save us time.

#### Usage notes

* Functions as a passive participial adjective, historically derived from the past participle of suppose, and behaves similarly to a passive/past participle in terms of grammar. Thus, it is typically preceded by a form of be, but not invariably so; see Citations:supposed to.
* Always followed by the infinitive form of a verb, if not omitted by ellipsis. Historically, the construction consisted of supposed followed by a to-infinitive.
* Often implies that the opposite is a strong possibility.
* When used with the sense "considered to" or "believed to", there is not always a clear distinction between this expression and the past participle of the ordinary verb suppose.

#### Synonyms

* (required): meant to (UK)

#### See also

* asposed to (childish synonym)

### References

* ↑ Ward, Gregory, Birner, Betty, Huddleston, Rodney (2002) “Information packaging”, in Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, editors, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge University Press, page 1440
* ↑ Palmer, Frank, Huddleston, Rodney, Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2002) “Inflectional morphology and related matters”, in Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, editors, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge University Press, page 1618

### Further reading

* “supposed to”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.