Breakdown of El ingeniero cree que hay que usar esta herramienta.
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
creer
to believe / to think
el ingeniero
the engineer
este
this (m.sg., also esta, estos, estas, esto)
Questions & Answers about El ingeniero cree que hay que usar esta herramienta.
Why does the sentence use hay que instead of tiene que?
Hay que is used to express an impersonal obligation, meaning "one must" or "it is necessary to" do something in general. It doesn't point to a specific person. If the engineer believed a specific person (like "you" or "he") needed to use the tool, we would use a conjugated form of tener que, such as él tiene que usar (he has to use).
In English we can say "The engineer believes one must use this tool," leaving out the word "that." Can I drop que in Spanish?
Do I always have to use the infinitive (unconjugated verb) right after hay que?
Why is it esta herramienta and not este or esto?