Using the Irregular Spanish Verb Tener - To Have

Tener is one of the most commonly used irregular verbs in Spanish ad as such will need to be learned from an early stage in your Spanish studies.This article will highlight the use of Tener and how it is used in some common Spanish Idioms.

It is inevitable that you will use the verb tener which means 'to have', from quite an early stage of your Spanish studies as it is one of the most commonly used verbs in the Spanish language. It is a particularly useful verb as it is used not only to indicate possession but it is also used in a number of idiomatic expressions that indicate emotions or states of being.
In English the verb -to have- is used to describe possession but can also be used as an auxiliary verb, for example; -I have a car- (possessive) and -I have seen a car- (auxiliary use).
In Spanish however, although tener means -to have- it is only used as the possessive variation of the verb and the verb 'haber', also meaning to have, is used as the auxiliary verb.

Tener follows the following format in the present tense:

Singular:
(Yo)      tengo        I have
(Tú)      tienes        you have (familiar)
(Él, Ella)    tiene        he/she has
(Usted)    tiene        you have (polite)

Plual: 
(Nosotros)    tenemos    we have
(Vosotros)   tenéis        you have (plural familiar)
(Ellos, Ellas)  tienen     they have
(Ustedes)     tienen        you have (plural polite)

You may have noticed that the forms above are preceded by a subject pronoun in brackets this is because in Spanish the subject pronoun is very rarely used apart from when ambiguity needs to be avoided, however in most if not all South and Latin American countries the subject pronoun is used all the time.

As you can see from the formation of the verb table above, tener uses the same verb endings as a regular -er verb, which are -o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis and -en but it has irregularities in the stem of all singular forms and the plural form they and you (polite).

Tener is used pretty much in the same way as the English possessive verb- to have, however expressions using tener are quite common and can be quite confusing, as the following list highlights with the literal translation followed by the english meaning..

tener hambre    to have hunger or,         to be hungry
tener sed        to have thirst or,        to be thirsty
tener calor    to have heat or,        to be hot
tener frío        to have cold or,        to be cold
tener miedo    to have fear or,        to be afraid
tener razón    to have right or,        to be right
tener lugar    to have place or,        to take place
tener suerte    to have luck or,        to be lucky
tener sueño    to have sleep or,        to be sleepy

So, if you were to say for example, -I am hungry- you would actually say -tengo hambre- (I have hunger)

Article Tags: Verb Tener, Subject Pronoun

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