"I have to study."
Translation:Tengo que estudiar.
22 Comments
The sentences " I have to study" and a previous sentence" We have to call the police" "Tengo que estudiar" and "Tenemos que llamar a la policia" I do not understand why the "que" is used in the Spanish response. Can anyone out there explain this to me. Please.
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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".
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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.
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"Por como está vestido, él ha de ser soldado."
The verb there is not deber, it's haber.
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I tried that but it wasn't accepted. I guess we need that 'que' in the middle
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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.
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I have no idea why I've just been presented with "yo debo estudiar" as the correct answer against my "yo tengo estudiar". I can accept that i might have needed que but where does debo spring from?
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It's just a Spanish idiom: "Tengo que acer esto" (I have to do this). /I think, literally it would be in this way: "I have that doing this"./ (?) :)
"Deber" means "I have to" as well, meanwhile "necessitar" means "I need (to)".
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Que is being used as a preposition, the old (archaic) construction would be tengo de estudiar, but we switched de for que, I don't know when or why, but that's how it is.
what makes sense now? this issue is still unresolved... where did this debo come from when tengo means i have and estudiar means to study
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Wasn't this sentence translated as "i have to hit the books" in another instance?
