Learn how to use the Spanish verb "to have" to express an obligation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “You have to study the Spanish lesson.” JP, what’s going on man? |
| JP: Not much. Just teaching Spanish today and this is a must study lesson. |
| Fernando: Yes, it is. |
| JP: Fernando, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Fernando: In this lesson, you will express obligation with “tener que”. This conversation takes place over the phone and the conversation is between Claudio and the receptionist. The speakers will be using the formal register. |
| JP:. Okay, let’s listen to this dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Recepcionista: Oficina de Recursos Humanos, buenos días. |
| Claudio: Buenos días. ¿Puedo hacer una solicitud para empleo con usted? |
| Recepcionista: Tiene que venir a la oficina para hacerlo en persona. |
| Claudio: ¿Cuál es su dirección? |
| Receptionist: Office of Human Resources, good morning. |
| Claudio: Good morning. Can I apply for a job with you? |
| Receptionist: You have to come to the office to do it in person. |
| Claudio: What is your address? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fernando: Yeah. We haven’t gone at the full length of it. |
| JP: No, but we got the important part and I think there is a lot to teach here and even in this half dialogue. First of all, it’s a phone call, right? |
| Fernando: Claudio is calling company apparently and he gets the receptionist at the Human Resources office. “Oficina de Recursos Humanos, buenos días”. |
| JP: Okay, so she identifies the department, “Oficina de Recursos Humanos”, and then she says “good morning”, “buenos días”. |
| Fernando: “Buenos días”. Claudio replies, “Buenos días. ¿Puedo hacer una solicitud de empleo con usted?” |
| JP: So “can I do an application, like a job application, with you?” |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: All right. We will analyze this sentence later but now we just want you to get the kind of the gist of the dialogue. So the receptionist is not going to take his application over the phone. |
| Fernando: No, of course not. She says “Tiene que venir a la oficina para hacerlo en persona”. |
| JP: “You have to come to the office in order to do it in person.” Now that makes sense because you know an application has to be filled out. Okay. |
| Fernando: I know a little bit about this. |
| JP: You too, you are an HR guy. |
| Fernando: Yeah. |
| JP: So Claudio, his next step is to go down the office, but he doesn’t know the address, right? |
| Fernando: So yes, “What is your address?”, “¿Cuál es su dirección?” |
| JP: “¿Cuál es su dirección?” Okay, so Claudio is on his way to gainful employment. |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: We hope. Good luck to Claudio. Shall we go to the vocabulary? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: Sí, pasemos. “La oficina”. |
| JP: “Office.” |
| Fernando: “La o-fi-ci-na”, “la oficina”. “Hacer una solicitud”. |
| JP: “To apply for a job.” |
| Fernando: “Ha-cer u-na so-li-ci-tud”, “hacer una solicitud”. “El empleo”. |
| JP: “Employment”, “job.” |
| Fernando: “El em-ple-o”, “el empleo”. “Venir”. |
| JP: “To come.” |
| Fernando: “Ve-nir”, “venir”. “La dirección”. |
| JP: “Direction”, “address”, “management.” |
| Fernando: “La di-rec-ción”, “la dirección”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: All right, Fernando. Let’s talk about these words. We are going to start with the word for “office”, right? |
| Fernando: “La oficina”, yes. |
| JP: “La oficina”. Now I’ve heard another word, “el despacho”. |
| Fernando: “El despacho”, puede ser. |
| JP: Is it the same thing? |
| Fernando: Yes and no. It’s more commonly used to describe a law firm. |
| JP: Oh, okay. |
| Fernando: Like “despacho de abogados”. |
| JP: Now where we work, we usually call “oficina”, right? |
| Fernando: Exactly. |
| JP: Okay, “oficina”, that’s the common word, “la oficina”. What’s next? |
| Fernando: “Hacer una solicitud”. |
| JP: “Hacer una solicitud”, “to apply.” |
| Fernando: “To apply.” |
| JP: Now literally this is “to make an application.” |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: “Hacer una solicitud”. Now this is the common way to talk about applying for a job, right? “Hacer una solicitud”. |
| Fernando: “Hacer una solicitud”. |
| JP: You can also say “solicitar”, right? |
| Fernando: Uhum. |
| JP: Now Fernando, this is the trick here. I’ve heard some Latin Americans say “aplicar”. How do you feel about that? |
| Fernando: Yeah, you don’t say “aplicar”, that would be a literal translation from English to Spanish. |
| JP: Okay. |
| Fernando: So in Spanish, it’s the translation. In English for “applying” or “application” it is “hacer una solicitud”. |
| JP: But Fernando, I got to tell you. I’ve heard people say “aplicar”. |
| Fernando: Well, I don’t know what to say. |
| JP: Okay, “hacer una solicitud”. |
| Fernando: I just hope they are listening. |
| JP: Yeah. “Hacer una solicitud” is a safe bet, right? |
| Fernando: Exactly. |
| JP: Okay. What’s the next one? |
| Fernando: “El empleo”. |
| JP: “El empleo”. Okay, now literally this is “employment” but it can also mean “the job”, right? |
| Fernando: “The job”, yes. |
| JP: “The job.” |
| Fernando: Pretty straightforward, “el trabajo”. |
| JP: Okay, a lot of people already know that word, “el trabajo”. Okay, this is just a synonym, “el empleo”. |
| Fernando: “El empleo”, yes. |
| JP: What else? |
| Fernando: “Venir”. |
| JP: “Venir”, “to come.” This is the opposite of “ir”, right? “Ir”, “venir”, “to come”, “to go.” |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: Okay, and what’s the last one? |
| Fernando: “La dirección”. |
| JP: “La dirección”. Now I gave three translations for “la dirección”, right? I said it’s “the direction” or it could be “an address” or it could be “the managements.” And it means all those things but not all at once, right? It depends on context. |
| Fernando: Exactly. |
| JP: All right. Now what was the context in our dialogue? |
| Fernando: “¿Cuál es la dirección?” |
| JP: “¿Cuál es la dirección?” Okay. |
| Fernando: “What is your address?” |
| JP: We know that he is trying to find the office. So we know that “dirección” here means “address.” Okay, shall we move on to the grammar? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Fernando: Yes. JP, this is your moment to shine again. |
| JP: Okay. All right, well you got to do the examples. |
| Fernando: All right, I will help out. |
| JP: So we are going to talk about expressing obligation and necessity with the phrase “tener que”. Now I hate it when I preface these grammar explanations with you know, these big words obligation and necessity because this is a very common phrase, all right? |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: “Tener que”. |
| Fernando: “Tener que”. |
| JP: It means “to have to do something” or in English you can also say “to got to do something.” “I got to do something.” |
| Fernando: “I got to do something.” |
| JP: And you use the verb “tener” which many of you should already know since it’s the beginner lesson and the word “que”, okay? And when you have “tener que” plus an infinitive, you have “to have to do something.” So for example, when the receptionist says, “you have to come to the office”. |
| Fernando: “Tiene que venir a la oficina”. |
| JP: “Tiene que venir a la oficina”, “tiene que venir a la oficina”. So “venir” is “to come”, “tiene que venir”, “you have to come.” You have to – it’s you got to come. You got to come down to the office. |
| Fernando: That’s the only way we are going to accept your application. |
| JP: Okay. So it’s obligation. Now anytime you put an infinitive after “tener que”, it’s going to have that same sense of obligation. Okay, I got to do something like “we got to go.” |
| Fernando: “Tenemos que irnos”. |
| JP: Okay, “we got to go.” “We got to take off.” “Tenemos que irnos”. How about “we got to eat”? |
| Fernando: “Tenemos que comer”. |
| JP: “Tenemos que comer”. “We must eat”, “we got to eat”, “we need to eat.” |
| Fernando: That soup is eyeing me right now. |
| JP: Fernando, got a bowl of soup and he hasn’t been able to eat it since we are recording. Okay, how about this one example? We got to end the podcast. |
| Fernando: Tenemos que terminar el podcast. I am so sad. |
| JP: No, you are not. You want to get your soup. I know. |
| Fernando: Kind of. |
Outro |
| JP: All right, well that’s going to do it for today. So folks, ¡hasta luego! |
| Fernando: ¡Adiós! |
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