Explanation

The irregular verb tener has three main uses in Spanish:

examples

Yo tengo tres manzanas. I have three apples.

examples

Francisco tiene muchísima sed. Francisco is very thirsty.

examples

Nosotros tenemos que comprar nuevos zapatos. We have to buy new shoes.

Conjugating the Irregular Verb Tener

The irregular verb tener is 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:

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

ten g o t i enes t i ene tenemos tenéis t i enen

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

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 tener is irregular. Instead of using the infinitive as a stem, we use the irregular future and conditional stem tendr- .

ten d ré ten d ría ten d rás ten d rías ten d rá ten d ría ten d remos ten d ríamos ten d réis ten d ríais ten d rán ten d rían

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

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 tener is completely irregular. It is very similar to the preterite form of the verb "estar", using tuv- as a stem.

t uve t uv iste t uvo t uv imos t uv isteis t uv ieron

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

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: