Learn how to express obligations using Spanish
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. |
| Dylan: In this lesson, you will learn about expressing obligations. |
| Carlos: The conversation takes place in Carlos’s house. |
| Dylan: The conversation is between Mónica and Carlos. |
| Carlos: The speakers are friends, so they will be speaking informally. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Carlos: Amor, ¿tengo que ir a la iglesia con tu familia? |
| Mónica: Sí, amor, ya hablamos de esto y tú lo prometiste. |
| Carlos: Pero no me gustan las iglesias. Además, no entiendo nada de lo que dicen, hablan muy rápido. |
| Mónica: Carlos, mis padres son muy religiosos y ellos creen que debes ir con nosotros todos los domingos. |
| Carlos: ¿Todos los domingos?, ¿estás loca? |
| Mónica: Bueno, amor, vamos hoy y después veremos. ¿Está bien? |
| Carlos: Lo hago por ti, sólo por ti. |
| Carlos: Honey, do I have to go to mass with your family? |
| Mónica: Yes, honey, we talked about this, and you promised. |
| Carlos: But I don't like churches. Also, I don't understand anything they say; they speak so fast. |
| Mónica: Carlos, my parents are very religious, and they believe you should go with us every Sunday. |
| Carlos: Every Sunday? Are you crazy? |
| Mónica: Well, love, let's go today and then we'll see. Okay? |
| Carlos: I'll do it for you, only for you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: Wow, that poor Carlos got dragged into it. |
| Carlos: Remember guys, this is a fake Carlos. This has nothing to do with me. |
| Dylan: Poor Carlos. |
| Carlos: I know but now it looks like his girl has been a little accommodating. So today, we will see… |
| Dylan: Yeah. |
| Carlos: And she will say that every Sunday and then there will be old people like sitting there like getting ready and they will be like in the 60s and like we have to go to church. You told me we will see, let’s go today and we will see. Next Sunday, I don’t know and then he dies. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s see what happens in the next lesson. You know, maybe he likes it. |
| Carlos: That’s true. We will see, ominous. Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Iglesia”. |
| Carlos: “Church.” |
| Dylan: “I-gle-sia”, “iglesia”. “Prometer”. |
| Carlos: “To promise.” |
| Dylan: “Pro-me-ter”, “prometer”. “Además”. |
| Carlos: “Moreover and yet.” |
| Dylan: “A-de-más”, “además”. “Deber”. |
| Carlos: “Should”, “ought to”, “duty.” |
| Dylan: “De-ber”, “deber”. “Religiosos”. |
| Carlos: “Religious.” |
| Dylan: “Re-li-gio-sos”, “religiosos”. “Después”. |
| Carlos: “After.” |
| Dylan: “Des-pués”, “después”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “iglesia”. |
| Carlos: “Iglesia”. Now that is a word that is not very evident with the translation. |
| Dylan: No, no, no, it’s not but it’s a pretty simple one. |
| Carlos: Now why do you say that? |
| Dylan: Well, I am not sure of the total exact number but I am sure like 90% of Spanish speakers are either catholic or some other Christian denomination. |
| Carlos: Now that I think about it, you are probably right. |
| Dylan: Well, on top of that, most old colonial towns are designed around the square and usually at the head of that square is a church. |
| Carlos: “La iglesia”. |
| Dylan: Now Carlos is being faced with another situation that’s not directional. |
| Carlos: Right and once again, just to be clear audience, this is not me we are talking about. |
| Dylan: Well, it seems like he doesn’t want to go to church with his girlfriend’s family. |
| Carlos: And we know this because he says “Amor, ¿tengo que ir a la iglesia con tu familia?” |
| Dylan: “Honey, do I have to go to mass with your family?” |
| Carlos: You know I don’t mind going to mass every now and then. I mean I try to save my soul and plus, I get the catch up on my thinking. |
| Dylan: Plus I am sure it’s good practice for you to hear a mass given in Spanish. |
| Carlos: No, that’s true as well. All damnation, hellfire and brimstone isn’t too intimidating when you are excited that you actually understand it. |
| Dylan: Pero no sabía que te gusta la misa. |
| Carlos: I know, I know. I didn’t know it myself but then one day it clicked and like I said, it’s not an every week kind of thing. |
| Dylan: I am sure and once again for a related word, what do you attend at church? |
| Carlos: I attend “la misa”, “the mass.” |
| Dylan: Very good. |
| Carlos: Next up. |
| Dylan: Next up, “prometer”. |
| Carlos: “Prometer”. A very important verb, “to promise”, and we all know that one’s word should be one’s bond. |
| Dylan: Or at least you hope that. |
| Carlos: Yeah, see Carlos is being faced with situation that we all face sometimes. |
| Dylan: And what’s that? |
| Carlos: Under pressure, he makes a promise and now that the time has come to make good on that promise, he is kind of reluctant. |
| Dylan: Well, I like to believe there are two kinds of people in the world. |
| Carlos: Oh yeah? |
| Dylan: Yeah. Those who do what they say they are going to do and then there is everyone else. |
| Carlos: And that’s a pretty good philosophy. |
| Dylan: I think so. It makes things pretty cut and dry. |
| Carlos: Unless you have some sort of extenuating circumstance, I mean a real one. |
| Dylan: But here Carlos is just complaining, “Sí, amor, ya hablamos de esto y tú lo prometiste”. |
| Carlos: “Yes, honey, we talked about this and you promised.” Always famous last words, Dylan, the man is trapped. |
| Dylan: Well, he promised and from what I remember of the father in law, this is not a promise that the young man wants to break. |
| Carlos: And what’s the recent promise that someone has made you? |
| Dylan: Well, “my mom says she was going to babysit early.” “Mi mamá prometió venir temprano a cuidar a los niños”. |
| Carlos: Your mom promised to come early to take care of the kids. |
| Dylan: Come on, you know the related word, the noun... |
| Carlos: “La promesa”, “the promise”, no problem. |
| Dylan: Next up, “además”. |
| Carlos: “Además”, an adverb you are most likely to hear in every day conversation. |
| Dylan: “Además”, also “moreover” and “yet”, but I think in English, you would just hear and said with the certain tone. |
| Carlos: See Carlos is trying to form his argument and he is giving reasons why he shouldn’t go. |
| Dylan: “Pero no me gustan las iglesias. Además, no entiendo nada de lo que dicen, hablan muy rápido”. |
| Carlos: “But I don’t like churches. Also I don’t understand anything they say. They speak so fast.” It sounds just like something I would say. |
| Dylan: Yeah, but it does. See here, Carlos is adding reason after reason. |
| Carlos: So if I wanted to make the point to go to a certain restaurant and wanted to add reasons, I could say “Vamos a comer al restaurante de la esquina, es rico y además es barato”. |
| Dylan: “Let’s eat at the restaurant on the corner, it’s delicious and also cheap.” |
| Carlos: That was a very good reason to eat at the restaurant. |
| Dylan: I can’t think of any other better one’s than that. |
| Carlos: Now “también” which is for some reason one of my favorite words. It’s also related. |
| Dylan: “También” is an adverb that means “also.” |
| Carlos: And we should also add its evil twin sister, “tampoco”. Wait! I think brother, wouldn’t it which means neither. |
| Dylan: Next up, “deber”. |
| Carlos: I just got the new collar duty game, shoot, shoot, bang, bang on the internet, yeah. |
| Dylan: Well, yeah, “duty” is one of the definitions but what are the others? |
| Carlos: The others are “should”, “ought to” and then a stated “duty.” |
| Dylan: So really this is a verb of obligation. |
| Carlos: To yourself or others definitely. |
| Dylan: And that sense of obligation or duty is exactly what Monica is expressing. “Carlos, mis padres son muy religiosos y ellos creen que debes ir con nosotros todos los domingos”. |
| Carlos: “Carlos, my parents are very religious and they believe you should go with us every Sunday.” Talk about obligation and commitment. |
| Dylan: I think that is one of the points where people begin to think that church life can be a bit stifling. |
| Carlos: But you should try. |
| Dylan: Say that in Spanish. |
| Carlos: “Él debe intentar”. |
| Dylan: That could also be saying that “he ought to try.” |
| Carlos: What about a related word? |
| Dylan: Well, let’s save that for the grammar point. |
| Carlos: Okay, sounds good. What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Religiosos”. |
| Carlos: “Relighgua”. |
| Dylan: Say with me slowly, “re-li-gio-sos”. |
| Carlos: “Religiosos”. |
| Dylan: You know that this word is an adjective. |
| Carlos: Why is that? |
| Dylan: Because we already heard it in our last example. |
| Carlos: “Carlos, mis padres son muy religiosos y ellos creen que debes ir con nosotros todos los domingos”. |
| Dylan: “Carlos, my parents are very religious and they believe you should go with us every Sunday.” Hah, I like that I can give you the long examples now. |
| Carlos: Dylan, I have done four seasons of spanishpod101.com. That’s a whole bunch of lessons. I couldn’t stand by my product if I didn’t show improvement. |
| Dylan: Very true. What do you think most about when you go to church now? |
| Carlos: “Me gustan las imágenes religiosas”. |
| Dylan: “I like religious imagery” too. I think you can enjoy it and even if you are not Christian. |
| Carlos: It’s just cool to look at. That is one thing I love about “la religión”, “the religion.” |
| Dylan: Last but not least, an oldie but goodie, “después”. |
| Carlos: “Después”, “after.” |
| Dylan: And you actually have your little game to remember that, but I am not sure you need it anymore. |
| Carlos: Well, remember the opposite game guys so like you would think. After, what’s related to after, before. Now you think about the words “antes” and “después”, “después” we have established means “after” but if you think it on the fly, you might want to think well, the first word I think is “antes”. That must be after because they both start with “A” but no, it’s the opposite. |
| Dylan: Wow, if it helps one listener, then it’s worth listening to again but it looks like Mónica is being a bit accommodating. |
| Carlos: “Bueno, amor, vamos hoy y después veremos. ¿Está bien?” |
| Dylan: “Well, love, let’s go today and then we will see, okay?” |
| Carlos: “So let’s hear a sample sentence.” |
| Dylan: “Ayer fui a clases, después fui a la playa”. |
| Carlos: “Yesterday I went to class and after I went to the beach.” Living a fantasy life on, Dylan. |
| Dylan: I think we all need to sometimes and with your opposite game, you have provided the related word. Now grammar, today a review of obligations. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: Personal or impersonal? |
| Dylan: Both. |
| Carlos: You know, we use periphrasis a lot. I am noticing it more and more in my every day speech. I didn’t even realize. |
| Dylan: That’s a good thing. So you will also benefit from this review. |
| Carlos: I am going to try. |
| Dylan: Well, in Spanish, we can express obligations either personally or impersonally. One way to express obligations is to use the verb “tener”, “to have.” Think of this formation along the same lines that we express obligations in English. For example, “tengo que hablar español en mi trabajo”. |
| Carlos: “I have to speak Spanish at work.” |
| Dylan: We can also express impersonal obligation with the verb “haber” using it as a verb of existence in a periphrastic construction. When we say something such as “hay que pagar”, “one must pay”, we are expressing an impersonal obligation. Why? |
| Carlos: Because when we say “hay que pagar” we are not specifying the particular person who must pay. |
| Dylan: You got it. |
| Carlos: So let’s look at formation guys. First for personal obligation, we are going to use the verb “tener”. |
| Dylan: “Tener” plus “que” plus “infinitivo del verbo”. |
| Carlos: That’s “to have” plus “to” plus “the infinitive of the verb.” And for the impersonal obligation, we have... |
| Dylan: “Hay” plus “que” plus “infinitivo del verbo”. |
| Carlos: “One must” plus “the infinitive of the verb.” A sample sentences, Dylan. How about some personal ones first? |
| Dylan: All right. “Yo tengo que salir”. |
| Carlos: “I have to go out.” |
| Dylan: “Tú tienes que descansar”. |
| Carlos: “You have to rest.” |
| Dylan: “Él tiene que leer su libro”. |
| Carlos: “He has to read his book.” |
| Dylan: “Tenemos que comprar leche”. |
| Carlos: “We have to buy milk.” |
| Dylan: “Ellos tienen que practicar”. |
| Carlos: “They have to practice.” |
| Dylan: “Ustedes tienen que dormir”. |
| Carlos: “You all have to sleep.” Now how about some impersonal? |
| Dylan: Sure. “Hay que tener paciencia”. |
| Carlos: “One must have patience.” |
| Dylan: “Hay que estudiar para graduarse”. |
| Carlos: “One must study in order to graduate.” |
| Dylan: Or the example from our conversation. |
| Carlos: It’s a personal obligation. When Carlos says “¿tengo que ir a la iglesia con tu familia?” |
| Dylan: “Do I have to go to church with your family?” Now all of these examples use the present tense. |
| Carlos: And when talking about past obligation, we conjugate the verb “tener”, “to have”, in the imperfect past tense. The structure though is the same “yo tengo que estudiar”, “I have to study”, would then become “yo tenía que estudiar”, “I had to study.” |
| Dylan: Also there is no direct way to translate impersonal expressions of obligation since the verb “haber” usually means “there is” or “there are.” Often when we translate impersonal expressions of obligation from Spanish to English, they become personal. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Oh, that review did me good. Okay guys, you know what, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Chao! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
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