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Tengo que pagar la cuenta en el restaurante.

Tengo que pagar la cuenta en el restaurante.
I have to pay the bill at the restaurant.
From Lesson 58:Obligation (tener que)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Tengo que pagar la cuenta en el restaurante.

Why do we need the word que between Tengo and pagar?
In Spanish, when you want to say you 'have to' do something, you use a specific formula: the verb tener (to have) followed by que, and then an infinitive verb (an unchanged action word like pagar, which means 'to pay'). If you leave out que, it would be like saying 'I have pay' in English.
How do we know who has to pay if the word yo (I) isn't in the sentence?
The word Tengo is specifically the 'I' form of the verb tener. In Spanish, because the verb changes its ending based on who is doing the action, you can usually drop the pronoun yo. The word Tengo already tells us that 'I' am the one who has to do it.
Why does the sentence use en to mean 'at' the restaurant? Doesn't en mean 'in'?
The Spanish preposition en is very flexible! It can translate to 'in', 'on', or 'at' depending on the context. Here, en el restaurante is the most natural way to say 'at the restaurant', though 'in the restaurant' would also be a perfectly fine translation.
What exactly does la cuenta mean in this context?
In a dining setting, la cuenta specifically means 'the bill' or 'the check'. You will use this word a lot when traveling! You might also see cuenta in other contexts, like a bank account (cuenta bancaria), but at a restaurant, it's what you ask the waiter for when you are ready to pay.
Is restaurante a masculine or feminine noun? It ends in 'e'.
It is masculine. Words ending in 'e' can sometimes be tricky because they don't follow the typical 'o' (masculine) or 'a' (feminine) rule. However, we can tell restaurante is masculine here because it uses el (the masculine word for 'the') right before it: el restaurante.

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