Why "tenía reservado", not "había reservado" here?

Question

It is a sentence in my textbook: Lo que yo quería sólo era conocer esa antigua ciudad, y no a las chicas guapas, pues ya tenía reservado el billete para regresar Alemania.

Why not use "había reservado..."?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This is an excellent question!

Your confusion is understandable, in that in English both words are translated as "had".

The difference is that in your sentence - "tenía reservado el billete" - the emphasis is on the fact that the ticket was in her possession (thus "tenía"). In other words, she had the ticket (and it was reserved).

If it were "había reservado el billete", the emphasis would be on the action of having reserved the ticket.

In you sentence "reservado" is the adjective; whereas in "había reservado" it is part of the verb.

I know that this is a bit of hair-splitting regarding grammar, but I hope it helps.

exclente respuesta mountain:) - 00494d19, Dec 21, 2009

Answer 2

If it's not a grammatical error, then I understand it as "I had my ticket secured/bought" instead of "I had secured my ticket." As in "tenia los zapatos puestos" instead of "me habia puesto los zapatos." Same meaning, just different phrasing.