Using 'Haber De'

Question: I think there's another form of haber, which is haber + de + verb. In one of her songs, Natalia Oreiro, a famous Uruguayan singer, says: (ojal’) 'que la suerte sea suerte y no algo que he de alcanzar." What does she mean exactly? When do I use this special form of haber + de + verb?

Answer: Haber de followed by the infinitive usually means "to have to," "to be necessary," or "to be supposed to," kind of like tener que or haber que, but expressing a much weaker and often vague sense of obligation. Although the expression is used a lot in some areas, in other places you're more likely to come across it in literature (or song lyrics!).

Here are a few examples of its use:

• Ha de estudiar mañana. She needs to study tomorrow.
• He de estar a dieta. I need to be on a diet.
• ¿Por qué habría de salir? Why should he leave?

In the first two examples, the sense of obligation could be less than the English translations suggest; in the third example, the usage suggests a tone of indignation.

Haber de also can express probability in much the same way that "have to" (or sometimes "must") in English can express probability rather than obligation:

• La solución al problema ha de ser difícil. The solution to the problem has to be difficult.
• Has de ser rica. You must be rich.

As to the song lyrics, here's one possible translation: "that good fortune will be my destiny and not something I have to strive for."