The Verb Tener Spanish
Tener Let’s look at the verb tener (“to have”). It features two verb changes that we will see very soon.
Las formas de TENER yo tengo tú tienes él,ella Ud. tiene nosotros tenemos ellos, ellas, Uds. tienen
yo tengo The “yo” form is irregular because it adds a –g- before the final –o. There is a small group of verbs that act in the same way. We will call them the “go” verbs.
tú tienes, él tiene, ellos tienen These three verb forms change in the middle, too. The stem “ten-” becomes “tien-.” The endings are the usual for –er verbs: -es, -e, -en. This is an example of one kind of stem- changing verb. We will see three different kinds of stem-changing verbs.
Nosotros tenemos This form is regular. This is another feature of stem-changing verbs: there is no change in the stem in the nosotros form.
Arrrggghhh! That’s a lot to remember, but for right now just learn tener as an irregular verb.
Let’s Practice!! Yo _______ (tener) dos clases de ciencias, pero mi amiga sólo _______ (tener) una.
Tener Yo tengo dos clases de ciencias, pero mi amiga tiene sólo una.
May I have another? Nosotros _______ (tener) una fiesta el sábado si tú _______ (tener) tiempo para venir.
Tener! Nosotros tenemos una fiesta el sábado si tú tienes tiempo para venir.
That’s all, folks!