How to change the modal verb

Question

Lidia tuvo que ser atendida por el director del hotel.Lidia had to be taken care of by the hotel director.Ellas han tenido que ser acompañadas a casa porque era muy tarde.They had to be accompanied home because it was very late.
Why the modal verb in the first word used to tuvo que, rather than same with the second word modal verb when they mean was both had to ???

Accepted Answer

Hola Zhang
As Marsha said, they are using different tenses of the verb tener. In English, sometimes you use the preterite tense when we use the present perfect, so you can also say:

Ellas tuvieron que ser acompañadas a casa.
They had to be accompanied home.

Using the present perfect "han tenido que" would mean that the action has taken place very recently and we consider ourselves as still being inside that timeframe.
If you are wondering about why we used the plural of the verb, and not the singular ( han tenido que... instead ha tenido que...), this is because the subject now is a plural subject "ellas han tenido que...". 
I hope it clarifies it.
Saludos
Inma

Answer

The verb tener is used in both sentences but in different tenses. The indefinido in the first one, tuvo que and the present perfect in the second one han tenido que.