Tener Expressions

The irregular verb teneris one of the more difficult Spanish verbs to conjugate and to use correctly. But don’t worry — we’ll go over all of it right here!

The Present Tense

Let’s get started with the present tense. We notice the following:

tener is an -er verb (see more here)
specifically, tener is a verb ending in -ner (so a g will appear in certain forms)
tener is a stem shifting verb from e > ie

These three traits explain the present tense forms of the verb tener:

Subject	Present
yo	tengo
tú	tienes
él, ella, usted	tiene
nosotros	tenemos
vosotros	tenéis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	tienen

Now let’s make a few example sentences using the verb tenerin the present tense:

examples
Mis padres tienen muchos libros. My parents have a lot of books.
Nosotros no tenemos tiempo para tus excusas. We don’t have time for your excuses.
La UNAM tiene más de 140 bibliotecas en sus varias sedes. UNAM has over 140 libraries on its various campuses.

The Future and Conditional Tenses

In the future and conditional tenses, the verb teneris irregular. Instead of using the infinitive as a stem, we use the irregular future and conditional stem tendr-.

Subject	Future	Conditional
yo	tendré	tendría
tú	tendrás	tendrías
él, ella, usted	tendrá	tendría
nosotros	tendremos	tendríamos
vosotros	tendréis	tendríais
ellos, ellas, ustedes	tendrán	tendrían

Now let’s see some examples using the verb tenerin the future and conditional tenses:

examples
Siempre tendrás el apoyo de tus hermanas. You will always have the support of your sisters.
Yo tendría más amigos si pudiera hablar mejor español. I would have more friends if I could speak better Spanish.
Tendrán 45 minutos para terminar su trabajo. You will have 45 minutes to finish your work.

The Preterite (Simple Past)

The preterite, or simple past, form of the verb teneris completely irregular. It is very similar to the preterite form of the verb "estar", using tuv- as a stem.

Subject	Preterite
yo	tuve
tú	tuviste
él, ella, usted	tuvo
nosotros	tuvimos
vosotros	tuvisteis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	tuvieron

Here we have some example sentences using the verb tener in the preterite tense:

examples
Apenas tuve tiempo de ponerme la ropa. I barely had time to put on clothes.
Los González tuvieron muchas dificultades para vender su casa. The Gonzalezes had a lot of trouble selling their house.
Tuvimos la oportunidad de visitar el laboratorio de la Dra. Sánchez Vázquez. We had the opportunity to visit Dr. Sanchez’s lab.

Other Tenses & Verb Forms of Tener

There are many more forms of the verb tener. Some, like the past imperfect, are completely regular. Others, like the subjunctive use the irregular stems mentioned above. To see all of the possible forms of tener check out our full conjugation of the verb “tener”.

Expressions Using the Verb Tener

In Spanish, we have a number of phrases that use the verb tener + a noun. These are generally equivalent to English phrases using the verb to be + an adjective.

In English, we have phrases like to have fun that include the verb to have. But we don’t actually possess the fun, we just mean that we are enjoying ourselves. This same thing happens in Spanish as well. We can use the verb tener, which basically means to have, in phrases like tener sed(to be thirsty). It doesn’t mean that we literally possess thirst, only that we are feeling thirsty.

Let’s look at some examples:

Phrase in Spanish	Meaning in English
tener hambre	to be hungry
tener sed	to be thirsty
tener frío	to be cold
tener miedo	to be afraid
tener sueño	to be sleepy
tener cuidado	to be careful

Now let’s use some of these in some example sentences:

examples
La abuela siempre tiene frío pero nunca lleva chaqueta. Grandma is always cold but never wears a jacket.
¡Tengan cuidado! Hay hielo deslizante en la acera. Be careful! There’s slippery ice on the sidewalk.
De joven teníamos miedo de las arañas. When we were young we were afraid of spiders.

¡Tengo ganas de aprender más!

Want to learn more phrases that use the verb tener? Check out our complete list here!

The Phrase Tener Que

In English we have the phrase have to, meaning need to, which is totally unrelated to the original meaning of the verb to have. In Spanish, we have this as well. We can use the phrase tener que+ infinitive to mean to have to, to need to.

Let’s look at some examples:

examples
Lo siento, pero tengo que irme ahora mismo. I’m sorry, but I have to leave right now.
Carlos tiene que buscar a una niñera para este sábado. Carlos has to look for a babysitter for this Saturday.
Los partidos políticos argentinos tienen que llegar a un acuerdo. The Argentinian political parties have to come to an agreement.