why do you say Tengo?
Soy confundida... Why do you say "Tengo veinte anos" instead of "Soy veinte anos"?
7 Answers
Age in spanish is expressed in how many years you have, not in how many years you are, which is how it's done in english 
A more complete way to say it is "Tengo veinte años de edad." As in "I have 20 years of age."
It's literally true that that's how many years of age a 20 year old person has, so it's a valid way of thinking about it. Think about how an English speaker might say, "I have 10 years in car sales." That doesn't sound weird because we're used to hearing it, though "I am a 10 year veteran of car sales" would also work. It's just a matter of what you're used to hearing.
I guess the simplest answer is just tradition. They just developed the tradition of saying it one way and English speakers developed a different tradition.
For the same reason you'd also say "tengo hambre" (I have hunger instead of I am hungry) or "Tengo frío" (I have cold)... it's Spanish!
Why do English speakers say phrases like "It's always in the last place you look" when you're trying to find something... of course it is, you're not going to keep on looking after you've found it?
Sometimes, the "why" is just that that's what people say, and other people repeat it. People learn phrases more than individual words... It's lkie the tnihg wehre you jbumle up the lteters of wrods but can slitl raed it 
We say "I have a headache" not "I am headachy" ... so technically it shouldn't be weird to say "I have hunger" instead of "I am hungry" ... but it's not what you're used to.
20 years is an expresion of time. One cannot be time (unless you're a jedi or something), but you can have 20 years behind you. I think in English we say a lot of things that would probably sound crazy to the rest of the world, but we are so use to it that it's normal. You have to also remember that you are translating ideas and not words.
Because you are not 20 years, but you do have 20 years.
Yeah you have 20 yrs under your belt but as a person you aren't 20 yrs
Hi EJClaire
Well, you can think about it this way.
When you say Soy veinte años, you are actually saying: I am 20 years.
But this doesn't make sense even in English does it? How can a person be a unit of time.
Instead of tacking on the qualifier "old" as we do in English: I am 20 years old, in Spanish they use the verb tener to express that this number of years has been experienced, attained, enjoyed, borne, suffered, etc or you could think of it has **I have (experienced, enjoyed, etc) 20 years.
Personally, I like the way that it is said in Spanish. It just seems a bit more poetic. What do you think?
