Irregular Spanish Verbs:
Tener - (to have)
' Tener ', usually translated as ' to have ', is a very useful verb. It's primary use is to indicate possession. However, in Spanish ' tener ' is used in a number of idiomatic expressions that indicate emotions and states.
As with the verbs ' ser' and ' estar ', the English verb ' to have ' has two versions in Spanish; ' tener ' which we will cover here, and ' haber '. 'Haber' (which is covered here), is the equivalent of the English auxilliary verb 'to have' as in "you have played" and should never be used to express possession.
Here are the conjugations of the verb 'tener' in the present tense.
(For a complete printable conjugation sheet, showing all the irregular parts of ' tener ' click here or on the image above)
Note: Many students become confused with the issue of whether or not they should use the personal prefix; yo, tú, es...etc when writing or speaking in Spanish. The answer to this will depend upon your location and your course material. In European Spanish these prefixes (pronouns) are normally dropped and only used when ambiguity needs to be avoided; whereas in Latin American Spanish the use of the pronouns is much more widely used.
Most of the time the verb 'tener' is used in very much the same way as the possessive form of 'to have' in English:
Yo tengo dos hijos I have two children El tiene un coche blanco He has a white car Tuvimos cuatro casas We had four houses Ellos tienen una escuela buena They have a good school However, this is not always the case...
Some common expressions using the irregular spanish verb 'tener':
In Spanish many things are possessed that in English would make no sense at all, for example in Spanish you have hunger rather than being hungry, and you have 20 years rather than you are 20 years old.
Here is a list of some of the most commonly used expressions.
tener calor to be or to feel hot tener ____ años to be ____ years old tener cuidado to be careful tener la culpa to be at fault tener éxito to be successful tener frío to be or feel cold tener hambre to be hungry tener miedo to be afraid tener prisa to be in a hurry tener que + infinitive to have to... tener razón to be right no tener razón to be wrong tener sed to be thirsty tener suerte to be lucky For an honest review of the newest Spanish Verb Training Software, guaranteed to improve your mastery of Spanish verbs dramatically, click here.
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