Estoy cansado vs. Tengo frío

Question

Why do you use Estoy cansado and Tengo frío. Both frío and cansado seem to be discriptions. Why don´t you say Estoy frío

Answer 1

Basically it's because "estar frío" actually means something different from "tener frío". You can say both, but if you want to mean "I am cold" rather than "I am cold to the touch", then you use "tener" instead of "estar".

In most of the odd translations, you can think of "tener" meaning "I am affected by" rather than "I have". Might help you to wrap your brain around it.

Answer 2

There are many idioms that use tener instead of estar in the sense of "to be". Why? no reason, its just the way things are.

Spanish speakers learning english question why we say "to be cold" instead of "to have cold" as well. :D