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- "I have to study."
"I have to study."
Translation:Tengo que estudiar.
39 Comments
It's been five years and you almost certainly know this now, but for anyone else first reading this thread:
No two languages ever map word-for-word. In English, we indicate obligation by saying that we have to
do something; Spanish says that we have that
do something: Tengo que hacerlo.
If it helps, think of it as saying, "this is something that I have to do".
Here is an explanation I found: '"Tengo que" is the informal way of saying "Deber." Comparing the two phrases to English can be confusing because in English, "Have to" is obligation and "Should" is advisory; they have different meanings, whereas in Spanish, "Deber" can mean either, "Should" or "Have to." "Deber" can also mean probability: "Por como está vestido, él ha de ser soldado." "From how he is dressed, he must be (probably is) a soldier."'
Also of note, Spanish speakers seem to use 'deber' more as 'must' rather than 'should' implying greater obligation than the less formal 'tengo que' (literally means 'to have to') which is use more like 'should' is in English.
526
Well sure, you will get the same message across but the point to this lesson is to introduce you to new phrases. You can't be sure the person you are speaking with will only use the verbs and phrases you find easy to remember.
473
In fact when someone hears you speak their language it's almost guaranteed they'll then say something with words you've never heard before!
Yo is dropped when the verb indicates yourself already. For example, "estudio" means "I study", so saying yo would be redundant. However, if you were to say something like "I am studying" the verb is changed to "estudiando" (-ando added to the end of a verb just means -ing". In this case, there is no indication of who you are referring to, so it would be written as "Estoy estudiando". "Yo" is changed to "estoy" based on the tense.. but that's a future lesson.
And Toya, saying "Tengo estudio" is also incorrect. In a sentence, only the first verb is conjugated and the second verb is left alone. For example, if you want to say "I want to study", "want" would be conjugated, but "study" would not. "Quiero estudiar".
Hope that clears it up!
185
Doesn't tengo mean i own? I get the sense that deber means i must/should rather than in english saying i own this task.... have versus have to in english. Maybe deber is related to debt? Like i owe myself to do this...
165
I think understand now after reading these comments and thinknh about the context of hacer. So, when the word is used on its own, it's translates to "have." However, if the sentence contains "to" which makes the phrase "have to" you need to add "que." Thanks Majklo_Blic!