| Tener is one of the most commonly used | | | | (Usted) tiene you have (polite) |
| irregular verbs in Spanish ad as such will need to | | | | Plual: |
| be learned from an early stage in your Spanish | | | | (Nosotros) tenemos we have |
| studies.This article will highlight the use of Tener | | | | (Vosotros) tenéis you have (plural |
| and how it is used in some common Spanish | | | | familiar) |
| Idioms. It is inevitable that you will use the verb | | | | (Ellos, Ellas) tienen they have |
| tener which means 'to have', from quite an early | | | | (Ustedes) tienen you have (plural |
| stage of your Spanish studies as it is one of the | | | | polite) |
| most commonly used verbs in the Spanish | | | | You may have noticed that the forms above are |
| language. It is a particularly useful verb as it is | | | | preceded by a subject pronoun in brackets this is |
| used not only to indicate possession but it is also | | | | because in Spanish the subject pronoun is very |
| used in a number of idiomatic expressions that | | | | rarely used apart from when ambiguity needs to |
| indicate emotions or states of being. | | | | be avoided, however in most if not all South and |
| In English the verb -to have- is used to describe | | | | Latin American countries the subject pronoun is |
| possession but can also be used as an auxiliary | | | | used all the time. |
| verb, for example; -I have a car- (possessive) | | | | As you can see from the formation of the verb |
| and -I have seen a car- (auxiliary use). | | | | table above, tener uses the same verb endings |
| In Spanish however, although tener means -to | | | | as a regular -er verb, which are -o, -es, -e, -emos, |
| have- it is only used as the possessive variation | | | | -éis and -en but it has irregularities in the stem |
| of the verb and the verb 'haber', also meaning to | | | | of all singular forms and the plural form they and |
| have, is used as the auxiliary verb. | | | | you (polite). |
| Tener follows the following format in the present | | | | Tener is used pretty much in the same way as |
| tense: | | | | the English possessive verb- to have, however |
| Singular: | | | | expressions using tener are quite common and |
| (Yo) tengo I have | | | | can be quite confusing, as the following list |
| (Tú) tienes you have (familiar) | | | | highlights with the literal translation followed by the |
| (Él, Ella) tiene he/she has | | | | english meaning.. |