"Tengo que prista", or "tengo prista"?

Question

I'm solving a question, and the dialogue says this;

A: ¿Qué haces aquí? Tienes el examen en cinco minutos. B: ¡Dios mio! Tengo _____. Adíos. A: Suerte en el examen.

Now, I know the answer to this is prista (to hurry), but wouldn't it be better to say Tengo que prista instead of the dialogue, because "tengo que" is "I have to~"? Just a thought^^ What do you guys think?

Answer 1

It's "prisa."

Tener prisa doesn't mean to hurry, but to be in a hurry.

Ah, thus the confusion.. Thank you. - Saphire, Jan 22, 2011

Is this just a phrase I'll have to memorize? - Saphire, Jan 22, 2011

De nada. To add to what renzo said, you can also use apurarse or darse prisa after tener que to say that you have to hurry. - Deanski, Jan 22, 2011

This is just one of the "tener + noun" expressions that you can (or need to) memorize. :) - Deanski, Jan 22, 2011

Answer 2

Perhaps it would help you to consider that the verb in your phrase is "tener", in English-> "to have".

Prisa us a noun meaning "haste" or "urgency".

Tener prisa could be literally translated "to have haste", or "to have urgency".
But in English we express that thought in a different way. We use "to be in a hurry".

Answer 3

Tengo prisa means I'm in a hurry

To hurry up .. Apresurarse

So in this case it would be tengo prisa o tengo que apresurarme.

It is always nice to have another native Spanish speaker on our forum. Welcome aboard! :-) - webdunce, Jan 23, 2011