Tener expressions: when Spanish says have and English says be

In Spanish you don't are hungry, you have hunger. A small set of tener expressions covers hunger, thirst, age, fear and more, and getting them right fixes some of the most noticeable beginner mistakes.

The tener expressions you'll use every day

Why English uses "to be" and Spanish uses "to have"

English describes the state as something you are: hungry, cold, afraid. Spanish names the feeling as a thing (a noun) and says you have it: hambre (hunger), frío (cold), miedo (fear). Once you see that the word after tener is a noun, the rest follows. You make it stronger the way you'd make any noun bigger, with mucho or mucha, and you can't use muy (very), which only goes with adjectives.

How to say very: mucho, mucha

The ending of mucho matches the gender of the noun:

Hambre is feminine even though you say el hambre (feminine nouns starting with a stressed a take el in the singular), so it's mucha hambre. In casual speech you'll occasionally hear mucho hambre, but mucha is the standard form. Ganas is always plural: muchas ganas.

Hot and cold: tener, estar or hacer?

This is where the biggest mistake lives. Spanish has three ways to say "hot" depending on what's hot:

Saying Estoy caliente about yourself doesn't mean you're warm; in most of Latin America it means you're sexually aroused. That's why it's one of the most famous beginner slips: see estoy caliente vs tengo calor, and for the weather, hace calor and the hacer verb page.

Age: tener años

Age is something you have in Spanish: Tengo treinta años, Mi abuela tiene noventa y dos años. To ask, say ¿Cuántos años tienes? (tú) or ¿Cuántos años tiene? (usted). Soy treinta años is a classic English-speaker mistake (why it happens), and so is forgetting the tilde: años, not anos. The ¿cuántos años tiene? page covers the question and its look-alike for prices. Be careful with birthdays: Mañana cumplo cuarenta (I turn forty tomorrow) uses cumplir, not tener.

Tener que and tener ganas de

Tener que + infinitive is the everyday way to say "have to": Tengo que irme (I have to go), Tuvimos que esperar una hora (We had to wait an hour). It's more common in conversation than deber, which sounds more like "should" or "must". The impersonal version is hay que: Hay que reservar (You need to book).

Tener ganas de is "to feel like" or "to really want to": No tengo ganas de cocinar (I don't feel like cooking), Tengo ganas de verte (I can't wait to see you). Follow it with an infinitive or a noun: Tengo ganas de un café.

Past tense: tuve or tenía?

Most tener expressions describe a state, so in the past they usually take the imperfect: Tenía hambre (I was hungry), Tenía diez años cuando nos mudamos (I was ten when we moved). Use the preterite when the state started or ended at a specific moment: Tuve miedo cuando se fue la luz (I got scared when the power went out). Tener is irregular in both the present (tengo, tienes, tiene) and the preterite (tuve, tuviste, tuvo), so its verb page is worth a look.

What people say in Mexico

• Me dio hambre or Ya me dio sueño (I got hungry, I'm getting sleepy) are very common alongside tengo hambre.
• Me da pena is the usual way to say you're embarrassed; tengo vergüenza is stronger and closer to ashamed.
• Estar apurado or andar con prisa are common alternatives to tener prisa.
• Me da miedo (it scares me) is as common as tengo miedo: Me dan miedo las alturas.

Common mistakes

• Estoy hambre should be Tengo hambre.
• Soy treinta años should be Tengo treinta años.
• Estoy caliente (about the heat) should be Tengo calor.
• Es caliente hoy should be Hace calor hoy.
• Tengo muy frío should be Tengo mucho frío.
• Estoy correcto for "I'm right" should be Tengo razón.
• ¿Puedo tener un café? isn't a tener expression at all: say ¿Me da un café? (here's why).

These expressions are also covered alongside ser and estar in the ser and estar course. To test your own sentence, try the free Spanish grammar checker: it catches estoy hambre and soy treinta años and tells you why.

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