Tiene que ser....

Question

Hola amigos,

I was thinking about the construction tiene que ser... Does this trigger the subjunctive because it's an impersonally factual statement?

Gracias a todos que me ayuden.

Answer 1

Thanks for that response, but what I was referring to was for example: tiene que ser que ella tenga algo de comer. Something like that.

Forget your "triggers" of subjunctive use. There are many times when we can use either subjunctive or indicative depending on the nuance we want - and this case is one of them.

Subjunctive in this case tells the listener that you believe she has something to eat.

Indicative in this case tells the listener that you know without doubt (a fact) that she has something to eat.

Answer 2

I don't think so, because "tiene que ser" is usually followed by a noun or a noun phrase of some sort.

EX.

Tiene que ser Adela. It has to be Adela.

Tiene que ser la razón. It has to be the reason.

Tiene que ser un gran problema. It must be a big problem.

(With an adjective) Tiene que ser fuerte. He has to (or must) be strong.

Charlie Brown agrees with me

There may be other constructions that just might use the subjunctive, but I can't think of any now.

Answer 3

Thanks for that response, but what I was referring to was for example: tiene que ser que ella tenga algo de comer. Something like that.

In that case there would be no subjunctive because "tiene que ser" is almost the same as "es verdad que" which does not require subjunctive. - Daniela2041, Jun 21, 2016