Learn Spanish (Latin America): Tienes que estar en la oficina al mediodía.

Tienes que estar en la oficina al mediodía.

You have to be in the office at noon.

Breakdown of Tienes que estar en la oficina al mediodía.

to be (location/state)

la oficina

the office

Questions & Answers about Tienes que estar en la oficina al mediodía.

The lesson uses a las for "at" a certain time. Why is it al mediodía here instead of a las mediodía?

Mediodía (noon) is a singular masculine noun. When the preposition a (at) meets the masculine article el (the), they combine into the single word al. We use a las for actual clock hours because the hours themselves are feminine and plural, like a las tres (at three o'clock).

Since this lesson is about using ser to talk about time, why does this sentence use estar?

You use forms of ser when you are saying what time it is, like Es mediodía (It is noon). However, in this sentence, the main action is being physically located somewhere (en la oficina). For physical locations, you must always use estar, even if you happen to mention the time!

Why is there a que between tienes and estar?

In Spanish, the phrase tener que followed by an action word in its basic form (like estar) is how you say "to have to" do something. If you leave out the que, tienes just means you own or possess something.

Is mediodía a combination of two words?