Tener (to have) · All tenses

Spanish uses tener (to have) for age, not ser or estar. Literally 'I have thirty years'. This pattern extends to many physical and emotional states: tener hambre (to be hungry), tener sed (to be thirsty), tener miedo (to be afraid), tener sueño (to be sleepy), tener calor (to be hot).

Use 'tener que' + infinitive to mean 'have to' or 'must': 'Tengo que trabajar' (I have to work), 'Tienes que estudiar' (You have to study), 'Tenemos que irnos' (We have to go). It's one of the most common ways to express necessity in Spanish.

The preterite of tener uses the irregular stem 'tuv-': yo tuve, tú tuviste, él/ella/usted tuvo, nosotros/as tuvimos, vosotros/as tuvisteis, ellos/ellas/ustedes tuvieron. None of these forms carry an accent mark, which is a distinguishing feature of the 'pretérito grave' irregulars.

Use 'tuve' (preterite) when the having or experience was a bounded event: 'Tuve una idea' (I had an idea — at a specific moment), 'Tuve que irme' (I had to leave — that action happened). Use 'tenía' (imperfect) for ongoing past possession or states: 'Tenía un perro' (I used to have a dog), 'Tenía cinco años' (I was five years old — describing background).

'Tuve que' + infinitive expresses a past obligation that was actually carried out: 'Tuve que estudiar toda la noche' (I had to study all night — and I did). Compare with 'tenía que estudiar' (I had to study — describing the obligation, without confirming it happened).

Tener in the imperfect is regular: yo tenía, tú tenías, él/ella/usted tenía, nosotros/as teníamos, vosotros/as teníais, ellos/ellas/ustedes tenían. All -er and -ir verbs follow the same -ía endings in the imperfect.

Use 'tenía' for ongoing or repeated past states: descriptions, ages, background information, habitual past possessions. 'Tenía diez años' (I was ten — describing age as a background). 'Tuve diez años una vez' would be strange — age is a continuous state, not a bounded event.

The -ía endings (and -íamos, -íais) carry an accent on the 'í' because the stress falls on what would otherwise be an unstressed vowel. Spanish accents always mark the stressed syllable when the standard rules would put the stress elsewhere — this is universal across all -er/-ir verbs in the imperfect.

The present subjunctive of tener uses the stem 'teng-': yo tenga, tú tengas, él/ella/usted tenga, nosotros/as tengamos, vosotros/as tengáis, ellos/ellas/ustedes tengan. The stem comes from the irregular yo form 'tengo' — most irregular verbs build their subjunctive from the yo form by replacing the -o with the subjunctive endings.

Use it after triggers of doubt, wish, emotion, command, or impersonal expressions: 'Espero que tengas razón', 'Quiero que tengamos suerte', 'Es necesario que tenga cuidado'. Also after conjunctions like 'cuando', 'aunque', 'antes de que' when referring to future or hypothetical events.

Tener is irregular in the present indicative tú/él/ellos forms (tienes, tiene, tienen — with stem change e→ie). But the subjunctive is built from the yo form 'tengo' minus the -o, giving 'teng-' + the subjunctive endings (a, as, a, amos, áis, an). This is a regular pattern for irregular Spanish verbs.

The future of tener uses the irregular stem 'tendr-': yo tendré, tú tendrás, él/ella/usted tendrá, nosotros/as tendremos, vosotros/as tendréis, ellos/ellas/ustedes tendrán. The 'd' is inserted to ease pronunciation — a pattern shared with poner (pondré), salir (saldré), and venir (vendré).

Both are correct. 'Tendré' (simple future) feels slightly more formal or removed in time. 'Voy a tener' (going-to future) is more common in casual conversation for near-future plans. The simple future is also the standard way to express conjecture about the present: '¿Cuántos años tendrá?' = 'How old could he be?'

About 12 high-frequency Spanish verbs developed contracted future stems (tendr-, pondr-, vendr-, saldr-, podr-, querr-, sabr-, habr-, dir-, har-, etc.) because their full infinitives would have been awkward to pronounce repeatedly. The pattern was driven by phonetic economy in everyday speech. Ser, estar, ir, and most other common verbs kept their full infinitive as the future stem.