tener & haber

Question

what is the difference between tener and haber in spanish ?

The use of proper capitalization is mandatory here on SD. - rac1, Feb 2, 2015

Answer 1

If you do a search you will find many threads on this.

tener y haber

haber y tener

Difference between tener and haber

Answer 2

Hello Shahrz,

Welcome to the SpanishDict forum

You asked:

what is the difference between tener and haber in spanish ?

I am going to give you a brief and basic overview of the differences between the uses of tener and haber

Basically speaking, they both mean to have but ...

tener is the principal verb meaning to have / to own / to possess

ex's; Tiene una perra = She has a dog.

Tenemos una casa grande en México = We have a large house in Mexico.

It is also used to mean to have to (do something) using the verbal construction tener que + infinitive

ex: Tienen que ir de compras esta tarde = They have to go shopping this afternoon

ex: Los niños tienen que hacer los deberes todos los días = The children have to do their homework every day.

The verb haber is an auxiliary verb meaning to have and is used in conjunction with other verbs to support their meaning:

eg: Debería haber visitado a mi abuela antes que se murió = I should have visited my grandmother before she died.

Si tuviera más dinero habría viajado por todo l mundo = If I had more money I would have travelled around the world.

The expression: Hay que is derived from the verbal construction: haber que but it is not as strong in meaning as tener que is in terms of obligation eg

Hay que hacer los platos = Somebody should do the washing up

This answer is not intended to offer an extensive or exhaustive (complete) explanation of how the verbs tener and haber are used in Spanish, but simply to give you a basic idea of how the verbs are used!

You may find the information about the differences between tener and haber helpful: enter link description here

I hope this helps

Corrijan mi español, por favor

Thanks Feliz...I wanted to encourage the O P to do a search before asking. :) - rac1, Feb 3, 2015

Gracias, Feliz--Wow this look like what I was going to do. You can edit out that last sentence. you don't need any correcting. ♥♥ - Daniela2041, Feb 3, 2015

Thank you very much, Daniella :) ♥♥ I add that last sentece just to cover me because I sometimes make mistakes :) - - FELIZ77, Feb 3, 2015