The verb Have in Spanish

Question

How is different forms of the verb Have in spanish, does have and has differ?

Are you referring to tener and haber? - NKM1974, Aug 23, 2017

Welcome to SD Fatima - ian-hill, Aug 23, 2017

Answer 1

Hi Fatima! The first thing you need to know is that "to have" has two translations in Spanish.

This topic can get quite long, but let's try to keep it short. In English you will use "to have" in these three cases:

I have a dog

I have to go to work

I have been there a few times.

The first sentence means possession and the second one obligation. They use the verb "tener" (http://dle.rae.es/?id=ZT8sFSB here you can see the conjugation patter if you clic on "conjugar").

In the third case the verb "to have" is there to show you that the next verb ("to be" in this case) happened in the past. Here we use the verb "haber" (check the conjugation: http://dle.rae.es/?id=Jv4Frsm|Jv5KhSK). There are other uses of haber, but you won't phrase those with "to have" in English.

Regarding you question, "have" and "has" change. But Spanish has much more conjugations than English, so "have" will change many times depending on who you are talking about. I'll show you a few examples:

I have a dog: Tengo un perro.

She has a dog: Tiene un perro.

They have a dog: Tienen un perro.

I have been there: He estado ahí.

She has been there: Ha estado ahí.

They have been there: Han estado ahí.

Can anyone help me with those links? I promise I tried! :) - Shamelesspanish, Aug 23, 2017

formatting is a mess, vaya lío, ya sé, acabo de poner un hilo con fotos y he tardado 5 minutos, puffff - 006595c6, Aug 23, 2017

shame, falta de concordancia Spanish have , muy bien explicado, pero creo que es principiante, solo busca "tener" - 006595c6, Aug 23, 2017

Fixed! I agree, but I believe that the whole point of public questions is that the answers suit many other users. - Shamelesspanish, Aug 23, 2017

Answer 2

HI fatima, well, to have "tener" has a different conjugation for ALL persons. Unlike in English, where you only have "have" and "has" for the third person.

Have a look at the conjugation of "tener" in Spanish:

to have = tener