supposed to

== English == === Alternative forms === sposedta, s'posedta (eye dialect) === 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 === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /səˈpəʊs(t) ˌtuː/ (General American) IPA(key): /səˈpoʊs(t) ˌtu/ (stressed) (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /səˈpəʊs tə/ (General American) IPA(key): /səˈpoʊs tə/ (unstressed) === Adjective === supposed to (not comparable) (idiomatic, passive voice) Expected to. Required to, obliged to, ought to. The phone is supposed to come with a manual. (in the negative, preceded by "not") Permitted to. [Note: this means that it is against the rules (or societal expectations) to smoke.] (in interrogative or similar situations) Able to, capable of (used to indicate that an expectation is impossible or unreasonable in the context). Believed to; generally considered to; considered likely to. Intended to; meant to. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see supposed,‎ to. ==== 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, unless this is omitted by ellipsis. Historically, the construction consisted of supposed followed by a to-infinitive. Often implies that the opposite is a strong possibility. There is not always a clear distinction between this expression and the past participle of the ordinary verb suppose. The final /z/ of the past participle is never phonemically devoiced to /s/ when it is used non-figuratively; therefore, the voiceless pronunciation is unique to the idiomatic inseparable term. In contrast, some speakers may use the voiced pronunciation /səˈpəʊzd/ for idiomatic as well as non-idiomatic uses, so the use of a pronunciation with /z/ is not necessarily an unambiguous sign of non-figurative usage. The distinction in meaning is subtle in the case of the sense "considered to" or "believed to". For example, "The thief is supposed to be hiding the forest" is grammatical as an ordinary passive construction with the separable past participle, in which case it must be pronounced with /səˈpəʊzd/, and means "People suppose that the thief is hiding in the forest". It is also grammatical with the idiomatic inseparable term "supposed to", in which case it may be pronounced with devoicing (/səˈpoʊs tə/), and means something more like "It is expected that the thief is hiding in the forest" or "The thief should be/ought to be hiding in the forest" (with the epistemic rather than deontic senses of "should" and "ought": the focus in this case may be on the existence of good reasons for expecting this, rather than on the existence of people who believe that this is the case.) ==== Synonyms ==== (required): meant to (UK) ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== asposed to (childish synonym) === References === === Further reading === “be supposed to”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.