See subject. Ie, a fairly explicit euphemism. There was a guy in front of me and I. said “tengo que ir,” which was probably moronic, in retrospect. But I wasn’t in a frame of mind at the moment to work out another periphrase, which probably would have been ludicrous anyway.
Need some context. Are you standing in line at a concert and decide you need to tell the stranger in front of you you really need to pee? How formal is the setting?
The closest I can come up with is “Tengo muchas ganas [de ir (al baño)].”
Your example is perfect. So if the context, in a non-formal setting, or at home, and its perfectly obvious what you’re talking about (doing the pee dance or on-line at the toilet) you can just say “tengo muchas ganas?”
And, at more formal sits–like at a fancy restaurant-- where in English I’d say, “where is the restroom”?
Or, “may I use the restroom?” ( I walk into restaurants a lot and like to ask.)
It’s the “use” part that gets me. I do know “Tengo que cargar,” however.
That should work.
I’d go with “Disculpe, ¿podría mostrarme dónde está el baño?”
You may want to ask your doctor about that one.
Cargar means to carry or load. You probably mean cagar, to defecate. Unless you do something I don’t want to know about.
Perdón, tengo que ir al baño. Dónde está, por favor?
I suppose you could use the word “use” though
Perdón, necesito usar el baño. Dónde está, por favor?
Or, if really desperate, grab crotch and say “Necesito pssssss!”.
While “baño” is frequently used, “servicio” is perhaps a bit more formal.
I just now remember that, as a kid in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, I was taught that the word “baño” was vulgar, and I should say “servicios.” I used to, but everyone here (NYC) looked at me funny.
:smack: Mierda! Cagar.
Ninja’ed.
“Servicios” or “servicio?”
Also, is it really as weird-sounding to Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Mexicans (the bulk of Spanish-speakers here) as I’ve found by the looks of incomprehension here, on the few times I’ve said it instead of baño?"
Servicio. I suppose if you were referring to both the men’s and women’s rooms you could say servicios.
I don’t know about those, but it’s perfectly well understood in Panama.
If I’m reading the OP right, he’s specifically asking how you would say (but politely, euphemistically):
Please mister let me get ahead of you in line, I need to go, like, NOW NOW NOW!
Only a few comments above seem to have picked up on that, and I’m not sure any have given a real answer.
No, I think the “muchas” makes that point. I could always add a few “muchas”'s for more emphasis.
In Spain, it’s “servicios.” In Spain, I got weird looks for saying “baño.” After living a year in Spain, I got weird looks from Latin Americans for saying “servicios,” before I switched back to “baño.”
On a related note, no one in Spain can agree on what to call a spatula.
“Perdón, ¿el servicio?” (báter, baño - depends on location but most people have heard all versions, if only from the telly) avoids the tú vs usted vs vos conundrum and covers both. If it’s “customers only”, they’ll tell you it’s “sólo para (los) clientes”.
“Perdón, es que tengo prisa” (sorry, I’m in a hurry) works for asking to be let ahead in line, specially if accompanied by a little child who’s doing the pee-pee dance.
“Tengo muchas ganas” is the kind of unfinished line which invites NYC-style jokes. Without further context, it could be ganas de beber (thirst), de comer (hunger), de cambiar de empleo (a wish to change jobs) or de follarte a la vecina del cuarto… (a wish to have sex with the woman who lives in the fourth floor). So, someone may ask “¿ganas de qué?” as if it wasn’t pretty evident (“you need what?”), or answer back something along the lines of “y yo tengo ganas de que me toque la lotería, pero no juego…” (“and I want to win the Lotto, but I don’t play…”). “Necesito ir”, listed in the OP, does work but has the same problem that someone may ask back “¿a dónde?” (“where?”). Never underestimate the amount of coñones around…
Nava, nice post. Thanks.
I must say, however, that the odds of me coming up with
are slim, what with a reflexive and a subjunctive. Especially were I dying to pee.
I’m learning that the subjunctive is far more common in Spanish than in English, certainly, and in French, Italian, and German as well. (Correct me if I’m wrong on those). I got used to not learning or giving a shit about the subjunctive early on when learning conversational languages, but in Spanish it sounds not stilted and learned but normal, in most “it’s that” or after the “ifs” and “woulds” and “coulds,” where we in English have mostly ditched the subjunctive, mostly (Could that be? Yes, that be). Then there’s “que tenga un buen día,” (have a nice day), which I don’t even know how to describe grammatically, so as to generalize its usage.
I threw out all my Spanish grammars a long time ago.
Tenga is a subjunctive too, and it’s in the third-person-used-as-second (the ellided subject is an usted). The most literal translation I can come up with is “may you have a nice day”. We do use a lot more subjunctives, and also have more impersonal forms. I miss a direct equivalent of our “se/hay que”-based impersonals (French does have one: on-based impersonals).
Yeah, the “may you” helps me to understand the subjunctive in that type of sentence. The impersonal “es que” (it’s that…) is what you mean, right? That always demands a subjunctive?
“It’s that [es que] it is so damn hot in here (that I must open the window).” Bad example–uses impersonal “hay”…
“Es que hay calor (damned?) y por eso tengo que abro (abre?) la ventana.”
Now I’m worried that all my “tengo que [infinitive]” should be “tengo que [subjunctive].”
It’s 4:20 am. Oy. Time for the grammatical nightmare of that Woody Allen character, harassed across rocky terrains by conditionals on long spidery legs.
No, I meant the ones for giving instructions “to whom it may concern”:
Se tiene que preparar la reunión - someone, and I don’t mean the Holy Ghost but I’d rather have volunteers than point fingers, needs to prepare the meeting.
Hay que preparar la reunión - idem.
They usually get translated into the passive: “the meeting must be prepared”.
Tengo que does carry an infinitive, you’re fine in theory but not in application: tengo que abrir. This is very confusing for Hispanics learning English, too: for most English verbs, the part of the infinitive that’s not “to” is the same as the first person of the present indicative, but Spanish builds infinitives with an ending rather than with a preposition.
The hace calor you’re thinking of (hacer, not haber - a very common confusion) isn’t so much an impersonal form as an impersonal situation: weather is always considered impersonal. Hace calor/frío; llueve; nieva; caen chuzos de punta: is hot/cold, rains, snows, rains very hard and cold… who? Nobody. The weather. God. Whomever is in charge of deciding whether humans should wear bikinis or fisherman’s knits.
I’ve woken up, and I cannot believe how much I fucked up my examples. I learned that, and have been saying it correctly, since fifth grade.
“Aquí se habla Español.” "Aquí hablamos “Español.” Thry’re both normal.