Trying to explain have/has Tener
Hello. I am teaching myself Spanish. I recently corrected an exercise for a Spanish girl learning English on the website "LM". She is very confused regarding the use of the words have.and has. I tried to explain by comparing the forms of tener, but my Spanish leaves a lot to be desired. The problem is regarding the I have--I do not have versus He has--He does not have. I think that when she sees the word has she associates it with the Spanish verb haber. I was going to try to explain my correction again be writing something like this:" Has es una palabra española y una palabra inglés también. Have es un verbo irregular. Has es la tercera persona singular, pero la forma negativa es have. He/She has He has a beard. Forma negativa He/She does not have. He does not have a beard." I know that this is not a very good explanation and would appreciate some help from expert Spanish speakers. Thank you!!!
2 Answers
Confusion might arise from the fact that the verb to have in English is used to show possession - I have a headache, and to form perfect tenses - I have been drinking since 8 am (which might explain my headache)
So for possession, to have = tener. (Él) tiene = he has. (Él) no tiene = he does not have. Note that when you negate in English it is the verb 'to do' that is made negative followed by the infinitive of the verb that you are dealing with, in this case 'to have'. So, conjugating the verb 'to do' we get 'he does not', you then add the 'have' bit.
For perfect tenses, to have = haber. (Él) ha tomado demasiado = he has drunk too much. Similarly, (yo) no he comido nada hoy = I have not eaten anything today (which might be another factor in my headache)...
Hope that helps, a bit. Alex
Good on you helping out a fellow student, I am also teaching myself Spanish and find that, as weird as it sounds, teaching someone else is one of the best ways to teach yourself.
Hmmm - now to your problem. It's not easy to know where to start. Does she understand that you can have main verbs and auxilliary verbs. And that just like in Spanish there is the main verb 'to have' tener and the auxilliary (or helper) verb haber which also means 'to have.
The following reference work has lots of good examples that you may find useful - perhaps simplifying and or translating their explanation into Spanish for your fellow student might be a good place to start (not to mention great translation practice for you 
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