Tener: having things, family and age (tengo veinte años)

A verb you'll use every day

A verb is a word for an action or a state: to be, to have, to live. The dictionary form (tener, "to have") is called the infinitive. To use a verb you conjugate it: you change its ending to match the person doing it, as you did with ser in Ser: soy, eres, es….

Tener is irregular: its forms don't follow the usual pattern, so learn them as a set.

Notice that ie appears in tienes, tiene, tienen, but not in tenemos, tenéis. As with every verb, you can usually drop the subject pronoun: Tengo already means "I have" (Subject pronouns: yo, tú, él, ella…).

Having things

• Tengo un perro.I have a dog.
• Ana tiene un gato.Ana has a cat.
• ¿Tenéis tiempo?Do you (all) have time?

In questions and negative sentences about things you normally have one of, Spanish often drops un/una: ¿Tienes coche? (Do you have a car?), ¿Tienes móvil?

Family

hermano (brother), hermana (sister), hijo (son), hija (daughter), hijos (children, sons and daughters).

• ¿Tienes hermanos?Do you have any brothers or sisters?
• Tengo una hermana y dos hermanos.I have a sister and two brothers.
• Tenemos dos hijos.We have two children.
• ¿Tiene usted hijos?Do you have children? (formal)
• Los García tienen tres hijas.The Garcías have three daughters.

Age: tener … años

English says "I am twenty". Spanish says "I have twenty years": tener + number + años.

• Tengo veinte años.I'm twenty.
• ¿Cuántos años tienes?How old are you?
• Pablo tiene doce años.Pablo is twelve.

años (years) has ñ. Without the tilde, anos is a completely different, rude word. ñ is its own letter, not a decoration.

Tener has many more uses later: tener hambre (to be hungry) in Tener hambre, sed, frío, calor, prisa, miedo, razón, sueño, tener que (to have to) in Obligation: tener que, hay que, and the full pattern in Tener, venir, decir: irregular in two ways.

Common mistakes

• Soy veinte años → Tengo veinte años. Age uses tener, never ser.
• Tengo veinte anos → años, with ñ.
• Yo tieno, yo teno → tengo. The yo form has a g.
• Nosotros tienemos → tenemos. No ie with nosotros or vosotros.
• Ella tienes → ella tiene. Él, ella and usted share the form tiene.

Latin America: ustedes tienen replaces vosotros tenéis for every plural "you". A mobile phone is usually el celular. In Argentina and some other countries you'll also hear vos tenés; this course uses tú tienes.