Learn Spanish (Latin America): Como los biólogos están ocupados, tenemos que limpiar los microscopios. - Since the biologists are busy, we have to clean the microscopes.

Word

Como los biólogos están ocupados, tenemos que limpiar los microscopios.

Meaning

Since the biologists are busy, we have to clean the microscopes.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Spanish (Latin America)

Lesson

Passive reflexive with modals (se pueden...)

Breakdown of Como los biólogos están ocupados, tenemos que limpiar los microscopios.

tener

to have

estar

to be (location/state)

Questions & Answers about Como los biólogos están ocupados, tenemos que limpiar los microscopios.

This lesson is about the passive se. How would we change the second half of this sentence to say 'the microscopes have to be cleaned'?

You would say se tienen que limpiar los microscopios (or tienen que limpiarse los microscopios). Notice that the verb tener becomes plural (tienen) to agree with the plural subject, los microscopios, even though the action is the infinitive limpiar.

Why does como mean 'since' here instead of 'how' or 'like'?

When como is placed at the very beginning of a sentence to introduce a cause, it translates to 'since' or 'because'. You will often see it followed by a verb in the indicative mood, like están, to explain the reason for the main action that follows.

Why do we use están with ocupados instead of son?

Being busy is a temporary state or condition, so it requires the verb estar. If you used ser, it would sound like being busy is an inherent, permanent characteristic of the biologists.

Could we use debemos instead of tenemos que?

Yes, debemos limpiar also works and means 'we must clean'. However, tener que (to have to) is much more common in everyday spoken Spanish for expressing this kind of practical, external obligation.