Tener: to have, to be, and to feel like it
Tener is irregular: tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tienen. Beyond "to have" it carries states English gives to "to be" — tengo hambre, tengo frío, tengo veinte años — and tener que plus an infinitive is the everyday way to say you have to do something.
Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.
The forms
| Pronoun | Form |
|---|---|
| yo | tengo |
| tú | tienes |
| usted / él / ella | tiene |
| nosotros / nosotras | tenemos |
| ustedes / ellos / ellas | tienen |
It is an e → ie stem-changing verb with an irregular yo, so it breaks in both of the usual ways at once. Tenemos keeps the original vowel, like every stem-changer.
Possession, which is the easy half
Tengo dos hermanas. ¿Tienes tiempo? No tenemos plata.
Note there is no equivalent of English got. Tengo is the whole verb.
The states English gives to “to be”
This is the half that catches people out, and it comes up every single day. Where English says I am hungry, Spanish says I have hunger.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| tengo hambre | I’m hungry |
| tengo sed | I’m thirsty |
| tengo frío / calor | I’m cold / hot |
| tengo sueño | I’m sleepy |
| tengo miedo | I’m afraid |
| tengo prisa / apuro | I’m in a hurry |
| tengo razón | I’m right |
| tengo suerte | I’m lucky |
| tengo cuidado | I’m being careful |
| tengo veinte años | I’m twenty |
Two things follow from the grammar. First, no article: tengo hambre, not tengo una hambre. Second, because the noun is a noun, you intensify it with an adjective rather than an adverb: mucha hambre, mucho frío — not muy hambre.
Tengo mucha hambre and tengo mucho calor are the two you will say most, and mucho agrees: hambre is feminine, calor is masculine.
Age is the one to fix first
¿Cuántos años tienes? — literally “how many years do you have”. Answering soy veinte is one of the most recognisable beginner errors in the language, and it is a single fact to memorise: age is tener, always.
Tener que + infinitive
The everyday way to express obligation, and far more common in speech than deber.
- Tengo que trabajar. — I have to work.
- ¿Tienes que irte ya?
- Tenemos que tomar un taxi.
Hay que is the impersonal version — “one has to”, no particular subject: Hay que llegar temprano.
Tener ganas de
“To feel like.” Extremely common, and there is no neat English word for it.
- Tengo ganas de salir. — I feel like going out.
- No tengo ganas. — I don’t feel like it. A complete sentence on its own.
No tengo ganas is one of those phrases that makes you sound like you live here, because it is what people actually say instead of a longer polite excuse.
In Peru
Apuro over prisa. Tengo apuro / Estoy apurado is what you hear in Lima; tengo prisa is understood but reads as bookish.
Tener roche — to be embarrassed, from the Lima noun roche. Me da roche is the other way to say it. See roche.
The diminutive softener. Tengo un ratito, espérame un segundito. The -ito is politeness, not smallness — the same habit behind ahorita.
Tener + que in a taxi. Tengo que llegar a las ocho is how you explain urgency without haggling, and it works better than hurrying the driver.
Practise
- ___ (yo) hambre.
- ¿Cuántos años ___ (tú)?
- ___ (nosotros) que salir a las siete.
- Ella no ___ ganas de ir.
- ___ (yo) mucho ___ . — I’m very cold.
→ 1 Tengo · 2 tienes · 3 Tenemos · 4 tiene · 5 Tengo mucho frío.
Next
→ Ir + a: the future you will actually use
Topics The presentPeruvian Spanish
Tener, and all the places English says “to be”
Age, hunger, cold and obligation all run through tener. The forms, the no-article rule, and mucho instead of muy.
-
1*¿Cuántos años ___ (tú)?* — and how do you answer if you are twenty?
Answer
tienes — Tengo veinte años. — Age is *tener*, always — literally “how many years do you have”. *Soy veinte* is one of the most recognisable beginner errors in the language.
-
2“I'm very hungry.”
Answer
Tengo mucha hambre. — *Hambre* is a noun here, so you intensify it with *mucha*, not *muy* — and *hambre* is feminine. *Muy* never touches a noun.
-
3*___ (nosotros) que salir a las siete.*
Answer
Tenemos — *Tenemos* — *tener* is an e → ie stem-changer, and like every one of them the nosotros form keeps the original vowel.
-
4Which one says “I feel like going out”?
Answer
Tengo ganas de salir. — *Tener ganas de* + infinitive is “to feel like”, and *no tengo ganas* works as a complete sentence. *Tengo que salir* is obligation, not appetite.
-
5You are running late in Lima. The local way to say it is:
Answer
Tengo apuro. — *Tengo apuro* — or *estoy apurado* — is what you hear in Lima. *Tengo prisa* is correct and understood, but it reads as bookish here.
-
6Which of these is correctly formed?
Answer
Tengo sueño. — These expressions take no article at all — *tengo sueño*, *tengo frío*, *tengo sed*. Adding *un* or *el* is the give-away.
-
7*Hay que llegar temprano* differs from *tengo que llegar temprano* how?
Answer
It has no particular subject — one has to. — *Hay que* is the impersonal version of obligation: nobody in particular has to, it is simply the rule. *Tengo que* pins it on you.