Hombre Tenías Que Ser

Question

This is the name of a new telenovela in Mexico. I am having trouble with the "tener que" in the imperfect tense. All of the other indicative tenses make sense.

• Tienes Que Ser = you have to be
• Tuviste Que Ser = you had to be
• Tenías Que Ser = you used to have to be
• Tendras Que Ser = you will have to be
• Tendrías Que Ser = you would have to be

Can someone help me understand this in the imperfect.

Wow. I really screwed up the persons. I think it is all fixed now. - gringojrf, Oct 24, 2013

i vote for it - csalvi06comcastnet, Oct 24, 2013

Answer 1

An example:

Imagine you're driving your car down the street and the vehicle in front of you turns on the turn signal, showing that it will turn right. When you are about to overtake it from the left, at the last moment, it changes abruptly its direction and turns left.

You look and can see that who drives the car is a woman and you say "mujer tenías que ser!" (you had to be a woman)

Excellent explanation through your example. Thanks. - gringojrf, Oct 24, 2013

Answer 2

"Hombre tenías que ser" means "You had to be a man". It is an expression and it is used for "mujer", "hombre", etc. For example, if your family is characterized, or famous for doing well or bad in something, you can criticize him/her or praise him/her by saying "Tenías que ser un Smith", or "You had to be a Smith". I hope I explained it well. Saludos!

Thanks. Idiomatic expressions are the hardest. - gringojrf, Oct 24, 2013

Very helpful. - katydew, Oct 25, 2013

I see now, thank you - AlanJP7, Oct 25, 2013

Answer 3

gringo, remember that:

had = tenía or tuvo in some contexts it has to be translated as "was having or used to have"

You're welcome.

Consider, "it had to be you" remember the song?

tenías que ser tú.

Thanks. - gringojrf, Oct 24, 2013

Answer 4

I have a question:

Hombre Tenías Que Ser = You used to have to be a man

Why doesn't this just mean "You had to be a man"?

I apologize if this is a dumb question, imperfect always confuses me.

exactly! that's why I said what I said. - chileno, Oct 25, 2013