Spanish Grammar Explained /
Hay que vs tener que
Do you know what passive aggressive is?
Yes, it's terrible.
In Spanish we have a cool way of being passive aggressive. Do you remember hay when we were describing what was in our homes?
Of course!
Hay is impersonal, which means that when we use it in Spanish, we are not saying who is doing what, we just simply focus on the "what".
You're right. We can't say "yo hay".
Yeah, that just sounds weird. Moving on: hay que expresses an impersonal obligation. If we want someone to do something but we don't want to point at anyone.
I definitely need that!
I know, it's great. Look:
Hay que limpiar.
It' s time to clean up.
Hay que comprar comida.
It's time to buy food.
And what if I want to be more direct? I've heard that Spanish cultures are a little bit direct when speaking.
We sometimes like to be direct, that's why we have tener que. We can conjugate tener, so we can specify who is doing what.
That's very helpful.
Julia, tienes que ir a la universidad.
Julia, you have to go to university.
Carmen y yo tenemos que estudiar más.
Carmen and I have to study more.