Spanish uses the verb “to have, hold keep” (tener / teh-NAIRR) in a number of expressions for which English uses the verb “to be.” For example, in Spanish you say “I have thirst” (tengo sed) instead of “I am thirsty.”

Expressions with tener / teh-NAIRR are common in Spanish and important to learn for the beginner. There are no specific guidelines about when you use tener (to have) versus estar / eh-STAHRR (to be in a state: location, condition), so you just have to learn the tener expressions by heart. For example, in Spanish you use the verb “to have” to say “I’m sleepy” (tengo sueño), but you use the verb “to be” to say “I’m tired” (estoy cansado / cansada).

NOTE: The Spanish that Works pronunciation guide was developed to help American speakers of English to learn to approximate Spanish sounds. The “dd” in the Spanish that Works pronunciation guide is a tapped “r,” similar to the fast “dd” of the word “buddy,” and the “th” in the guide is the voiced “th” of “brother.” The “eh” of the guide is like “eh?”, similar to the “a” of “gate.” Stress the syllable written in all caps. See text workbook for a full explanation. For more information, visit the SpanishThatWorksOrg YouTube channel.

Expressions with the Spanish verb TENER

Physical or emotional conditions one “has”

A few of the most important tener expressions have to do with physical or emotional states one can experience, such as hunger, thirst, cold, heat, fear, jealousy, and embarrassment. Here are some examples of states one has, rather than is in Spanish:

frío / f’DDEE-oh (cold)
calor (m.) / cah-LOHRR (heat)
hambre* (f.) / AHM-b’ddeh (hunger)
sed (f.) / seth (thirst)
sueño / SWEHN-yoh (sleepiness)

miedo / m’YEH-thoh (fear)
celos (m. pl.) / SEH-lohss (jealousy)
invidia / een-BEE-thee-ah (envy)
vergüenza / vairr-GWEHN-ssah (embarrassment, shame)
pena / PEH-nah (sorrow)
la culpa / COOL-pah (the fault, the blame)

*NOTE: Be careful with the pronunciation of hambre / AHM-b’ddeh (hunger) and hombre / OHM-b’ddeh (man).

Here are some examples of how one can use these expressions in a sentence:

El niño tiene hambre. (The child is hungry.)
¿Usted no tiene sueño? (Aren’t You-polite sleepy?)
El novio de ella tiene celos. (Her boyfriend is jealous.)
No tengo vergüenza. (I’m not embarrassed. I’m not ashamed.)
No han tenido sed.  (They haven’t been thirsty.)
Tuve pena. (I was sorry. I felt sorry.)
¡No tenga miedo! (Don’t be afraid!)

Other things one “has” rather than “is”

Here are some additional words you can use with tener / teh-NAIRR to express states of being:

X años* (m. pl.) / AHN-yohss (years old)
cuidado / kwee-THAH-thoh (care, carefulness)
suerte (f.) / SWAIRR–teh (luck)
prisa / p’DDEE-sah (hurriedness, being in a hurry)
éxito / EHK-see-toh (success)
razón (f.) /rrah-SOHN (reason = being correct or right)
ganas (f. pl.) / GAH-nahss (desire = being in the mood, feeling like doing something)

NOTE:  Be careful with the pronunciation of the word años / AHN-yohss.  Also note that años (years) can be used to talk about the age of objects and is used in the singular (un año) if the person or thing is only one year old.

Here are some examples of how these tener expressions are used in a sentence:

El niño tiene seis años. (The child is six years old.)
¿Usted no tiene prise? (Aren’t You-polite in a hurry?)
El novio de ella tiene razón. (Her boyfriend is right.)
No tengo ganas de ir. (I don’t feel like going.)
No han tenido éxito. (They haven’t been successful.)
Tuve suerte. (I was lucky. I got lucky.)
¡Tenga cuidado! (Be careful!)

Having something and describing something you have

It is important to remember that the words used with tener in these expressions are nouns, just like “book” or “pencil.”  So just as the book and the pencil do not change their names when different people own them, a noun such as sueño (sleepiness, the feeling of being sleepy) or pena (sorrow, the feeling of being sorry) is the same word whether it is experienced by a male or female.

Mi papá tiene sueño. (My dad is sleepy. He has the feeling of being sleepy.)
Mi papá tiene pena. (My dad is sorry. He has the feeling of being sorry.)
Mi mamá tiene sueño. (My mom is sleepy. She has the feeling of being sleepy.)
Mi mamá tiene pena. (My mom is sorry. She has the feeling of being sorry.)

Although the noun expressing the state of being (sleepiness, sorrow, cold, hunger, heat, luck, success, etc.) does not change gender, you do need to know the noun’s gender if you use an adjective to describe it. For example, the adjective mucho (a lot, much) becomes mucha / MOO-chah to agree with a feminine noun. So you would say mucho sueño (m.) (a lot of sleepiness, very sleepy) because sueño is masculine, but mucha pena (f.) (much sorrow, very sorry) because pena is feminine.

More examples of words used to modify (describe) a noun in a tener expression:

mucho frío (m.) (a lot of cold, very cold)
muchísimo calor (m.) (really a lot of heat, extremely hot)
mucha sed (f.) (a lot of thirst, very thirsty)
muchas ganas (f. pl.) (a lot of desire = really feeling like doing something)
poca hambre (f.) (little hunger, not very hungry)
mala suerte (f.) (bad luck)
toda la razón (f.) (all reason = being totally right)

Feeling cold vs. being cold

Most of the tener expressions are used to describe the experience of a living, sentient being. The verb estar (to be in a state: location, condition), on the other hand, can be used to describe the physical conditions of both of people and objects.

In Spanish, there is a difference between someone having the experience of being cold (tiene frío) and merely stating that something seems cold (está frío). For example, you would not say La comida tiene frío, because that would be like saying “The food is feeling cold.” Instead, you would say La comida está fría (The food is cold to the touch).

Similarly, if you say El niño está frío, it implies that the boy feels cold to the touch. He may or may not be feeling cold himself, and in fact, he might not even be conscious. (NOTE: If you say El niño es frío, with the verb ser (to be in essence: name, definition), it means that the boy is a cold or unfriendly person.)

You may notice that when used with está, the word frío changes to fría to describe the food (la comida) but not the boy (el niño). This is because the words used with estar are adjectives (describing words), and adjectives DO change endings to match the person or thing they modify. Remember, however, that the nouns used with tener do NOT change endings to agree with the gender of the person having them.

Look at these examples:

El taco está frío. (The taco is cold to the touch.)
La enchilada está fría. (The enchilada is cold to the touch.)
Mi amigo tiene frío. (My male friend is cold. He has the feeling of cold.)
Mi amiga tiene frío. (My female friend is cold. She has the feeling of cold.)

In the case of frío (cold), the noun and the masculine form of the adjective look exactly the same, but usually a noun and its related adjective are slightly different. For example, calor / cah-LOHRR means the heat that you feel, while caliente / cah-L’YEHN-teh means hot to the touch. Compare these examples:

El taco está caliente. (The taco is hot to the touch.)
La enchilada está caliente. (The enchilada is hot to the touch.)
Mi amigo tiene calor. (My male friend feels hot. He has the feeling of being hot.)
Mi amiga tiene calor. (My female friend feels hot. She has the feeling of being hot.)

NOTE:  A food that is hot to the taste is picante  / pee-CAHN-teh.

Asking questions with “tener” expressions

Remember that to ask a question such as “Do you….” or “Are you…” in Spanish, you use the same verb as in a statement, but you raise the pitch in your voice at the end of the sentence. English speakers use a similar intonation pattern to ask a question. For example:

Tiene hambre. S/he is hungry. You –polite are hungry. (Pitch in voice drops.)
¿Tiene hambre? Is s/he hungry? Are You-polite hungry? (Pitch in voice is raised.)

Sometimes you will need to use a question word such as “who,” “when,” or “how much” with the tener expressions. In this case, just use the question word in front of the verb as you normally would. For example:

¿Cuántos años tiene? How old is s/he, You-polite? (Literally: How may years does s/he, You have?)
¿Quién tiene hambre? Who is hungry?

¿Quién tiene la culpa? Who is to blame? Who is at fault?
¿Cuándo tiene usted sed? When are You-polite thirsty?
¿De qué tiene usted miedo? Of what are You-polite afraid?
¿De quíen tiene usted invidia? Of whom are You-polite envious?
¿Por qué tienen vergüenza? Why are they embarrassed?

Things you can have in both English and Spanish

Of course, tener / teh-NAIRR really does mean “to have,” so sometimes you may use tener in cases in which you would also use “have” in English. Here are some things one can have that are helpful to know, especially when traveling:

Tengo… / TEHNG-goh (I have…)
¿Tiene…? t’YEH-neh? (Do You-polite have?)

fiebre (f.) / f’YEH-b’ddeh (fever)
náuseas (f. pl.)/ NOW-see-ahss (nausea)
dolor de cabeza (m.) / thoh-LOHRR theh cah-BEH-sah (headache)
dolor de estómago (m.) / thoh-LOHRR they eh-STOH-mah-goh (stomachache)
un problema (m.) / oon p’DDOH-bleh-mah (a problem)
una pregunta / OO-nah p’ddeh-GOON-tah
una idea / OO-nah ee-THEY-ah

Remember it!

The verb tener / teh-NAIRR and the expressions of being that are used with it are some of the most important phrases to know and use correctly in order to be able to converse in Spanish. In order to learn them well, it may help to train yourself to think of the literal English translation for what you are saying until the expressions seem natural to you.

Imagine yourself as a Spanish speaker trying to communicate in English and saying “How many years do you have?” instead of “How old are you?” See yourself at a restaurant telling the waiter “I don’t have much hunger. What do you recommend?” Envision yourself making a mental list of what frightens you and saying “I have fear of this, and this, and that…”

If you think about it, it’s kind of nice to be able to say “I have jealousy” instead of “I am jealous.” This way, the jealousy is something you are experiencing, rather than something which defines you as a person.

Along these same lines, when you say “I have forty years” with the same verb that you use to say “I have forty friends,” it sounds like age isn’t something that labels who you are so much as something that you have by virtue of your life’s experience.

¡Tenga cuidado, pero no tenga miedo!
Be careful, but don’t be afraid!

¡Usted va a tener mucho éxito en sus estudios de español!
You are going to have much success in your Spanish studies!

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_{*This post was originally published as a lesson in the the Spanish that Works Review newsletter June 2005 by Elizabeth Almann}