Spanish The Verb “to have”
The Spanish verb to have or tener, translates to “to have” or “to possess,” and is one of the most irregular verbs in the Spanish language. This article includes tener conjugations in the indicative mood (present, past, future and conditional), the subjunctive mood (present and past), the imperative mood, and other verb forms like the gerund and past participle.
One of the most common verbs in the Spanish language is the verb TENER. TENER means to have in its base form but can actually change meaning based on the phrase it is used with. Don’t worry, we will talk about that in our next lesson! For now, let’s talk about TENER and how we use it.As we learned in our past three conjugation lessons, Tener is an -ER verb because it ends in the two letters -ER. That means we will use our -ER verb endings in order to conjugate it. Also, like the verb querer we talk about in a previous lesson, TENER is also a stem change verb. Note the spell change happening in the stem. This spell change is an e to an ie.
| NOTE! Remember stem change verbs will never have the stem spell change in the nosotros or vosotros forms. |
TENER = To have
| Yo tengo – I have | Nosotros(as) tenemos – We have |
| Tú tienes – You (informal) have | Vosotros(as) tenéis – You all have |
Él tiene – He has Ella tiene – She has Usted tiene – You (formal) have | Ellos tienen – They have Ellas tienen – They have Ustedes tienen – You all have |
Notice the yo form of the verb TENER also has its own irregular rules. It does not stem change in this form like most stem change verbs, and we also change the ending by adding a “g”!
| A few examples: Yo tengo dos perros – I have two dogs. ¿Tú tienes un regalo para mí? – Do you have a gift for me? Mi hermano tiene un trabajo muy bueno. – My brother has a very good job. Nosotros tenemos una casa en San Francisco. – We have a house in San Francisco. Nuestros empleados tienen ideas fantásticas. – Our employees have fantastic ideas. |
Tener – to have – is one of the most common irregular Spanish verbs. In the simple present tense, tener is used just like the English verb “to have” when it means “to possess”.
