obligatorio

Obligatorio is an adjective in Spanish that denotes something that must be done, complied with, or observed due to a rule, regulation, contract, or law. It signals that non-compliance is not optional. The term comes from Latin obligatorius, related to obligare “to bind,” and has been adopted in legal and administrative language across Spanish-speaking contexts. It agrees in gender and number as obligatorio, obligatoria, obligatorios, or obligatorias.

In practical use, obligatorio appears in legal, educational, workplace, and safety contexts. Common constructions include “es obligatorio,” “de uso obligatorio,” and “de carácter obligatorio.” Examples: “El uso del cinturón de seguridad es obligatorio,” “La entrega de documentos es obligatoria para la inscripción.” It contrasts with optional terms such as opcional or facultativo, which indicate freedom of choice rather than a binding requirement. In many systems, obligations are linked to sanctions or consequences for no cumplimiento, reinforcing su obligatoriedad.

Cross-linguistically, many Romance languages have cognates with similar meaning: Portuguese obrigatório, Italian obbligatorio, French obligatoire. In Spanish, the phrase “obligatorio” often accompanies normative or regulatory statements, while in everyday speech more informal expressions like “tiene que hacerse” or “debe hacerse” pueden convey the same idea with varying degrees of formality.