Unit 3: Introduction to the present tense and adjectives
3.6 Present Tense of tener and Idioms with tener
Tener means “to have” in the sense of “to own” or “to possess.”
| Person | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | tengo | tenemos | |
| 2nd | tienes | tenéis | |
| 3rd | tiene | tienen |
Ejemplos:
| Tengo tres hijos. | I have three children. |
| ¿Tienes una casa grande? | Do you have a large house? |
Many of its most common uses come in the form of idioms, almost all of which are translated as “to be”:
| tener … años | to be… years old |
| tener calor | to be hot, warm (applied to a person [or animal]) |
| tener celos | to be jealous |
| tener cuidado | to be careful |
| tener la culpa | to be at fault, to be to blame |
| tener éxito (false friend) | to be successful |
| tener frío | to be cold (applied to a person [or animal]) |
| tener hambre* | to be hungry |
| tener miedo | to be afraid |
| tener prisa | to be in a hurry |
| (no) tener razón | to be right (wrong) |
| tener sed | to be thirsty |
| tener suerte | to be lucky |
| tener vergüenza | to be ashamed |
*Although the cognate is not obvious, it is “famine.” In the evolution of Spanish, a late shift occurred, by which many words beginning with f changed to h, to put it very simply. You will encounter other such words in this text that underwent the same phenomenon. Huir (“to flee”), for example, was once fuir and is related to “fugitive” (someone who flees, Spanish fugitivo).
Translated literally, these expressions, when conjugated, are stating, “I have… years, she has cold, etc.,” As such, años, calor, and all other words presented here are nouns, which are modified by adjectives. Therefore, you will see a form of the adjective mucho (or poco [“little”] or the phrase un poco de [“a little (bit of)] modifying these nouns, not the adverb muy:
| Tienen mucha sed. | They are very thirsty. |
| Alonso tiene mucho éxito. | Alonso is very successful. |
| Tengo un poco de prisa | I’m in a little bit of a hurry. |
Two other common idioms with tener exist. In the first one, after the conjugated form of the verb, que is used followed by an infinitive, translating as “to have to do something.” Tener ganas de + infinitive means “to feel like doing something.” Since ganas (literally, “desires” or “hunger”) is a noun, like in the idioms above, it too is modified by a form of mucho, as you can see in the last example.
| Tenemos que esperar. | We have to wait. |
| ¿Tienes que estudiar? | Do you have to study? |
| Tengo ganas de descansar. | I feel like resting. |
| Amelia no tiene muchas ganas de estudiar. | Amelia does not feel much like studying. |
