Tener: Talking About What You Have
Tener expresses possession through forms that change with the subject. Begin with tengo, tienes, and tiene while talking about familiar objects and relationships.
Learning objective
Use common present forms of tener to say what people have.
Tener is a verb commonly translated as to have. An infinitive is the unchanged dictionary form, here tener. Use its present-tense forms to say what someone has now: Tengo un libro means I have a book, and Tenemos una reserva means We have a reservation.
The essential forms are tengo with yo, tienes with tú, and tiene with usted, él, or ella. Tenemos goes with nosotros or nosotras, and tienen with ustedes, ellos, or ellas. Tener is irregular because some forms do not follow the ordinary pattern of regular er verbs, so learn the whole set directly.
Spanish often omits a subject pronoun when the verb and context identify the subject. Tengo café and Yo tengo café both mean I have coffee. The explicit yo can add contrast, but tengo already points to the speaker. A noun after tener may need an article when referring to one countable item.
Tener also appears in useful expressions that English builds with to be, including age, hunger, and thirst. Tengo hambre means I am hungry, and Tengo sed means I am thirsty. Treat these as tener phrases rather than replacing tengo with a form of ser or estar.
Examples
Tengo un libro.
I have a book.
Tengo identifies the speaker as the person who has it.
¿Tienes una reserva?
Do you have a reservation?
Tienes addresses one person informally.
Usted tiene café.
You have coffee.
Tiene matches respectful singular usted.
Tenemos hambre.
We are hungry.
Spanish uses tener, literally have, in this expression.
Common mistake
- Instead of
- Yo tiene un teléfono.
- Try
- Yo tengo un teléfono. / Tengo un teléfono.
Yo requires tengo. Tiene belongs with usted, él, or ella, so the original subject and verb do not match. Because tengo already identifies the speaker, omitting yo is normal unless you need emphasis or contrast. Keep tengo un or tengo una as a flexible frame for one item.
Practice
Try it yourself
Complete with tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, or tienen: Yo ___ un libro; Tú ___ café; Ella ___ una reserva; Nosotros ___ hambre; Ustedes ___ dos teléfonos.