Friday, February 7, 2014

To Have as I Am

In English, we use to be to show how we are feeling both emotionally and physically. We say, "I am afraid" or "I am sleepy." Spanish uses two verbs to mean to be; but they also use the verb tener (to have) for showing emotions and physical sensations.


Before I go any further, let's go over how to conjugate the verb:

Tener
to have
Yo (I)
tengo (have)
Nosotros, Nosotras (We)
tenemos (have)
(You familiar)
tienes (have)
Vosotros, Vosotras (You all familiar)
tenéis (have)
El, Ella or Vd. (He, She or You formal)
tiene (has, have)
Ellos, Ellas, Vds. (They, You all formal)
tienen (have)

Now that you have the different forms of the verb tener, you can express certain things (or people) "having" a particular characteristic. Here's a brief listing:

tener calor
to be hot
tener frío
to be cold
tener hambre
to be hungry
tener sed
to be thirsty
tener razón
to be right (correct)
no tener razón
to be wrong
tener prisa
to be in a hurry
tener cuidado
to be careful
tener suerte
to be lucky
tener sueño
to be sleepy
tener mala cara
to look bad
tener miedo (de)
to be afraid (of – as in doing something specific like flying)
tener miedo (a)
to be afraid (of – as in something specific like spiders)
tener dolor de cabeza
to have a headache
tener dolor de estómago
to have a stomach ache
tener cariño a
to be fond of
tener celos
to be jealous
tener confianza (en)
to be confident (in)
tener en cuenta
to take into account
tener la culpa
to be guilty, to be to blame, to be at fault
tener derecho
to have the right
tener éxito
to be successful
tener lugar
to take place
tener vértigo
to be afraid of heights
tener vergüenza
to be ashamed
tener que (+ infinitive verb)
to have to (do something)
tener ganas de (+ infinitive verb)
to feel like (doing something)
tener ______ años
to be _____ years old

Granted not all of the expressions above translate as the English use of the verb to be, but quite a lot of them do.

Also note that if you want to insert the word "very" to show a higher extent of that expression, you would place it in between tener and the adjective. For example, if you are very hot, you would say "tengo mucho calor."

Finally, if you are not something, simply placing the word no in front of the conjugated verb tener will convey what you want successfully. As an example, if you are not very lucky at all, you would say "no tengo mucho suerte."

Try practicing some of the above tener expressions in the comments section below. If you can incorporate them into your daily life, even better.

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith

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