3.15: Gramática. El verbo tener
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- Erica Brown, Alejandra Escudero, María Cristina Montoya, & Elizabeth Small
- SUNY Oneonta via OER SUNY
Objetivos
- Recognize and use the irregular verb “tener”
- Use “tener” for saying people’s age
Verbo tener
The verb tener (to have) is special in the sense that it has an irregular yo form and also has a change of e>ie in the stem.
|
tener ( to have ) |
|
| (stem: ten; irregular yo-form; stem-vowel change) | |
| singular | plural |
| yo ten go | nosotros ten emos |
| tú tienes | vosotros ten éis |
| él tiene ella tiene usted tiene | ellos tienen ellas tienen ustedes tienen |
- María tiene una clase de psicología a las dos de la tarde. ( María has a psychology class at 2 p.m. )
- ¿ Cuántos lápices tienes en tu mochila? ( How many pencils do you have in your backpack? )
Tener años
To give age in Spanish, use the correct conjugation of the verb tener + number + años:
- ¿Cuántos años tienes? ( How old are you? )
- Tengo 22 años. ( I am 22 years old. )
- Tengo trece años. ( I’m 13. )
- ¿Cuántos años tiene él? ( How old is he? )
- Tiene ochenta y siete años. ( He’s 87. )
- ¿Cuántos años tienen? ( How old are they? )
Note: in English you can leave off “years old” and just say “I’m 22,” but in Spanish you must include the word años .
Contributors and Attributions
- Manifestacion #19j Tenerife. Authored by : Jose Mesa. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/liferfe/5850229679 . License : CC BY: Attribution
- We don't have WiFI. Talk among yourselves sign Marzola Parrilla Argentina Steakhouse Exterior, Cartagena Columbia. Authored by : Joe Ross. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeross/23791002624 . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Gramática: El verbo tener. Authored by : SUNY Oneonta with Lumen Learning. Provided by : SUNY Oneonta. License : CC BY: Attribution