Files

T

Trey t 47a7871c38 Add 13 new grammar notes with 1010 exercises from video extraction

Scraped a 4h Spanish fundamentals YouTube video (transcript + OCR on
14810 frames), extracted structured content across 52 chapters, and
generated fill-in-the-blank quizzes for every grammar topic.

- 13 new GrammarNote entries (articles, possessives, demonstratives,
  greetings, poder, al/del, prepositional pronouns, irregular yo,
  stem-changing, stressed possessives, present/future perfect, present
  indicative conjugation)
- 1010 generated exercises across all 36 grammar notes (new + existing)
- Fix tense guide parser to handle unnumbered *Usages* blocks
- Rewrite 6 broken tense guide bodies (imperative, subj pluperfect,
  subj future) with numbered usage format
- Bump courseDataVersion 5→6 with TenseGuide refresh on upgrade
- Add docs/spanish-fundamentals/ with raw transcripts, polished notes,
  structured JSON, and exercise data

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-04-16 08:40:05 -05:00

2.9 KiB

Raw Blame History

14. The Verb "Tener"

Source: A Complete Guide To Every Fundamental In Spanish

Tener means "to have." It's a stem-changing verb (e → ie) with an irregular yo form (tengo). It expresses possession (tener + noun), obligation (tener que + infinitive), and many "I am ___" expressions where English uses to be but Spanish uses to have.

Key Rules

tener is stem-changing e → ie in the boot forms, and the yo form is irregular: tengo.
nosotros / vosotros keep the regular stem (tenemos, tenéis).
Possession: tener + noun → Yo tengo un perro.
Obligation (have to): use tener + que + infinitive → Yo tengo que salir ("I have to leave"). Note: it's que, not a.
Compare with ir + a + infinitive (going to do something) — both use a "preposition" before the infinitive, but tener uses que and ir uses a.
Many "I am ___" expressions use tener because they describe having a feeling/state, not being it: age, hunger, cold, heat, fear, thirst, luck, care.

Conjugation: tener (present indicative)

Pronoun	Form
yo	tengo
tú	tienes
él / ella / usted	tiene
nosotros	tenemos
vosotros	tenéis
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tienen

"Tener" Expressions (English uses to be)

Spanish	Literal	English
Yo tengo 19 años.	I have 19 years.	I am 19 years old.
Yo tengo frío.	I have cold.	I am cold.
Yo tengo calor.	I have heat.	I am hot.
Yo tengo hambre.	I have hunger.	I am hungry.
Yo tengo sed.	I have thirst.	I am thirsty.
Yo tengo miedo.	I have fear.	I am afraid.
Yo tengo cuidado.	I have care.	I am careful.
Yo tengo suerte.	I have luck.	I am lucky.

Examples

Spanish	English
Yo tengo un perro.	I have a dog.
Tú tienes que pagar.	You have to pay.
Él tiene un gato.	He has a cat.
Nosotros tenemos una clase mañana.	We have a class tomorrow.
Ellos tienen que leer los libros.	They have to read the books.
Yo tengo que salir.	I have to leave.
Yo tengo que hacer mi tarea.	I have to do my homework.
Yo voy a hacer mi tarea.	I'm going to do my homework. (compare: ir + a)

Notes & Gotchas

The yo form is tengo, not "tieno" — memorize this irregular form.
tener que (not tener a) for obligation. The mismatch with ir a is one of the most common student errors.
tener expressions use no article before the noun: tengo hambre, not tengo una hambre.
To intensify a tener expression, use mucho/a (an adjective) instead of muy: tengo mucha hambre ("I'm very hungry"), never muy hambre.
Don't say Yo soy 19 años or Yo estoy hambre — those use ser/estar incorrectly. Spanish requires tener for these states.

2.9 KiB Raw Blame History