sentences on tenerque
i have to finish my homework. ans= Yo tenerque terminar mi deberes
4 Answers
Welcome to the forum. Can you add your level of Spanish and English to your profile? I assume you are beginner or intermediate in Spanish. It is just a guide to help when answering questions or assessing answers. You will see I say my Spanish is intermediate so of course there are some areas where an answer from a native speaker will be more reliable. With tener que you conjugate tener so it agrees with the subject.
In your sentence it should be: Tengo que terminar mis/los deberes.
- If it is obvious who the subject is you usually omit yo, tu, nosotros etc in Spanish.
- The word deberes (homework) is plural.
- Often you say los rather than mis/ or sus.
- Obviously you may have been asked to fill in a gap and if so there is no need to change the rest.
5 if it is your own sentence you can also use the verb 'hacer' which means to do.
Finally it can help if you add the country where you are located. I have had a teacher from Mexico but being based in the UK I know more phrases and grammar used in Spain whereas if I was in the USA I would know more phrases from Mexico.
In addition to Mardle´s great answer, and this might be regional, los deberes can refer to any chore that needs to be done at home, work, school, etc. A more specific word for school homework is la tarea.
In Mexico we say "tarea" but other countries in latin America like Venezuela and Chile say deberes and it's perfectly fine, we all would still understand. To say house chores we say "el quehacer". "No puedo ir al cine hoy, tengo que terminar mi quehacer." = "I can't go to the movies today, I have to finish my home chores".
According to many college textbooks, the word "tarea" is the preferred word. However in one on-line course in which I became involved at a local high school, the word "asignación" was used as well.
