Deber and tener que

Question

Okay, I'm trying not to bore everyone with my ignorance, but I still need help. Please look at my sample sentences and explain if they are correct.

1. Juan debió salir. Juan had to leave.

2. Juan tuvo que salir. Juan had to leave.

3. Juan debía salir. Juan should leave.

4. Juan debería salir. Juan should leave. 
   

5. Juan debería haber salido. Juan should have left

6. Juan tendría que haber salido. Juan should have left.
   

Tthere must be differences that I can't distinguish. Please help me! I need to stop making sentences about poor Juan!

They are the same in the affirmative. Both mean have to or must. In the negative, I think they are different. No debe salir (He must not leave) / No tiene que salir (He doesn't have to leave). But I could be wrong, so I am not making an official answer. - webdunce, Jun 1, 2011

Okay, there are subtle differences in the positive, too. But there are dramatic differences in the negative, if I remember correctly. - webdunce, Jun 1, 2011

Juan debía salir = Juan had to leave. - webdunce, Jun 1, 2011

Answer 1

I think you're looking for a map of perfect correspondence between a range of Spanish expressions and some English ones. I don't think you will find it.

"Have to" happens to be idiomatically similar to "tener que", but how would you express "Juan debía salir" in a past tense in English? You wouldn't say "had to" because that's just "tuvo que", not debía.

Would you say, "John should have left" ? -- no, because that's just past perfect, for which there's a Spanish equivalent. So would you say "John shoulded left" (I just made that one up!) or "John did-should leave" (also not correct English). You can't say those things, but it would get you pretty close if you could!

I think some of those differences you speak of are simpler to learn from exposure than by definition. Also, not every possible expression is commonly used, I think.

Thank you, Pesta. I didn't make myself very clear but you seemed to understand anyway! It was more about the conjugations, not the actual vocabulary. - MLucie, Jun 1, 2011

Answer 2

Pay special attention to this answer and also to this one.

Answer 3

This may help Deber vs Tener Que & Hay que