Why is 'que' used in this sentence?

Hello,

I am only beginning the 4th module of Spanish 1, so perhaps this question is answered further down the line. But I would love to understand why ‘que’ is added to the sentence below? To my limited knowledge, the sentence would have the same meaning if ‘que’ was removed, so can somebody help me understand? Thanks!

Ha ha, great answer but long.

Short version: “tener” means to have, “tener que” means to have to (do something).

Thanks both! Definitely not something that I've learned yet.

Small follow up - doesnt 'llegar' in the infinitive form mean ‘to arrive’ so ‘tenemos llegar’ by itself could mean ‘(we) have to arrive’ ? Or am I just completlely off my rocker?

Allan - funny! Thanks for the chuckle.

SawyerK2, nope. You need the que to have to.  Don't think of that to in an infinitive as a word that translates. It really translate more like llegar = arrive. In English, we add in that to but it is not really there in Spanish.

Thanks Scott, that makes lot of sense, appreciate you clearing that up. 

I do have one (I promise final) follow up. I'm still having a little trouble understaning when ‘to’ needs to be added for infinitive verbs in spanish? Take the example below.

Vas a necesitar (you are going to need) saber (to know). It seems like in this example just the infinitive saber is enough to translate into to know? Should'nt this be Vas a necesitar que saber?

Apologies if im getting to deep down the rabbit hole!

SawerK2 - I would add in a simple rule. If ir is followed by an infitive, it is always ir a (ir is congugated of course).   Same rule, the infinitive is not to know but rather know. 

But I just always remember ir + a + infinitive.

Voy a aprender español.

“They learned it as children soaking it up, not as grammarians who have made a formal study of the rules of their language.”  Yes!  Thanks, Allan.  That's why they say you need to read books, listen to TV, etc to soak up how the language is used.  Presumably reading aloud helps the soaking process, but I haven't been doing that yet.  I need to start.  

¡Hola a todos!

I'll just jump back to SawyerK2's original questions so we can get them all sorted out! :)

Al22 and Scott_C have had some great pointers, and a really important one to keep in mind is to try to avoid getting too wrapped up in literal translations: since Spanish and English are different languages with different backgrounds, they often don't work the same way!

Now, the good news is that most of the time when you use two verbs together in Spanish, you can simply put the infinitive verb (i.e. the unchanged verb) directly after the conjugated verb (i.e. the changed verb), and you don't need to add anything else to the sentence! Check out the examples below; I've put the infinitive verbs and their translations in italics.

Quiero encontrar el museo. 

“(I) want to find the museum.”

Necesitamos hablar.

“(We) need to talk.” 

Puedo ver el tren.

“(I) can see the train.”

Debes pensar en el futuro. 

“(You) must think about the future.”

So while English needs to use a “to” in some of these sentences and not in others, Spanish doesn't have this complication! You just pop the Spanish infinitive verb right in, without adding anything else to the sentence. 

Now, of course, there are going to be exceptions to this! Some Spanish verbs have to have another word added after them before they can be followed by an infinitive. 

Tener “to have” is one of these exception verbs: to say “to have to,” you need to actually add the word que “that” and say tener que:

Porque tenemos que llegar al aeropuerto a las seis.
“Because (we) have to arrive at the airport at six.” 

Tener que “to have to” is discussed in more detail in Lesson 6.4: “Irregular Verbs: VENIR and TENER.”

Ir “to go” is another one: to talk about the future and say “to be going to,” you need to add the word a “to” and say ir a: 

Voy a estudiar más tarde.

“(I) am going to study later.”

Ir a “to be going to” is explained in Lesson 2.9: “‘To Go’: The Verb IR.”

You'll learn all about verbs like these and will pick them up as you go along! For now, just remember that most of the time, you don't need to worry about adding a word for “to” in Spanish when you're using two verbs together.

I hope that this has answered your questions, SawyerK2! Don't hesitate to ask if you're still having trouble!

Saludos,

Liss

Thank you Liss!! I appreciate the detailed explantion and examples!

¡De nada, SawyerK2! :)