I’ve discovered some errors and/or extremely bad English form in the Spanish (Latin-American/Mexican) 3 course. The use of the word “got to” in the following examples (from lesson 22, Exploration) is extremely bad form:
debes tener un boleto y una visa
"you got to have a ticket and a visa"
Tienes que mostrar tu pasaporte en el aeropuerto
"you got to show your passport in the airport"
The English dictionary defines the word got as having the following forms (dictionary.com):
verb
1.
a simple past tense and past participle of get.
auxiliary verb
2.
Informal. must; have got (followed by an infinitive).
The incorrect form used in the examples given from lesson 22 should be changed to one of the following forms: “you have got to…” or “you must …”
The correct form of the word “got” does not mean that one must do something (which is implied in the examples above) or that one may do something (that would be “get to” instead). In that case it is an auxilary verb and requires another word (have, for instance, as indicated in the dictionary example). Rather, it indicates that you have received or did something (“you got a banana”), or something happened to you (“you got wet”). To correctly use the word got in the context of these exercises, the word have needs to be inserted before got, or “you have” can be contracted to “you’ve”. So the correct or proper sentence could be one of the following:
- “You have got to show your passport in the airport.”
- “You’ve got to show your passport in the airport.”
Alternatively, got to can be replaced with have to or must as follows:
- “You have to show your passport in the airport.”
- “You must show your passport in the airport.”
Another confusing/incorrect (based on the context) entry in the same lesson is
- “tenemos que ir en taxi”
- “we got to go by taxi”
The English sentance used here implies that “we were [able/allowed] to go by taxi”, not that “we [must/had to] go by taxi”, as is indicated in the Spanish. This entry should also be corrected.
On a positive note, the correct form is used in the folllowing entry from Spanish (Mexico) 3, 14 Peace Offerings:
“Tengo que comprar un regalo para mi madre”
“I have to buy a present for my mother”