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2 The Verb Tener Spanish

3 Tener Let’s look at the verb tener (“to have”). It features two verb changes that we will see very soon.

4 Las formas de TENER yo tengo tú tienes él,ella Ud. tiene nosotros tenemos ellos, ellas, Uds. tienen

5 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.

6 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.

7 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.

8 Arrrggghhh! That’s a lot to remember, but for right now just learn tener as an irregular verb.

9 Let’s Practice!! Yo _______ (tener) dos clases de ciencias, pero mi amiga sólo _______ (tener) una.

10 Tener Yo tengo dos clases de ciencias, pero mi amiga tiene sólo una.

11 May I have another? Nosotros _______ (tener) una fiesta el sábado si tú _______ (tener) tiempo para venir.

12 Tener! Nosotros tenemos una fiesta el sábado si tú tienes tiempo para venir.

13 That’s all, folks!