Tener conjugation: how to say 'to have' in Spanish (and much more)

Tener means "to have" — but if that's all you learn, you'll say estoy hambre on your first trip and get a puzzled smile in return. Spanish uses tener for hunger, thirst, age, fear, obligation and a dozen other things English says with "to be." This tener conjugation guide gives you every form you'll actually use, plus the expressions that make tener the most useful verb after ser.

After 40 years of teaching tener to English speakers, I know the pattern: the forms take a week, the expressions take forever unless someone explains the logic. So let's do the logic — and tengo frío will soon feel as natural as "I'm cold."

The big pictureWhen to use tener in Spanish

At its core, tener answers the question "what do you have?" — but Spanish stretches that idea much further than English does. Think of tener as the verb of carrying something with you: an object, a relationship, an age, a feeling, an obligation. You use it for:

• Possession — Tengo un coche rojo. (I have a red car.)
• Family and relationships — ¿Tienes hermanos? (Do you have brothers or sisters?)
• Age — Mi hija tiene doce años. (My daughter is twelve years old.)
• Physical sensations — Tenemos sed. (We're thirsty.)
• Feelings and states — Tengo miedo de volar. (I'm afraid of flying.)
• Obligation, with que — Tengo que trabajar mañana. (I have to work tomorrow.)

Four of those six jobs use "to be" in English. That's the key to tener: in Spanish, hunger, cold, fear and age are things you have, not things you are. Hold on to that image and half the mistakes in this guide never happen.

The formsTener conjugation: present tense

Tener is irregular, but it's irregular in a very organized way. The yo form takes a -go ending (tengo), and the stem vowel changes e → ie in tú, él/ella and ellos. The nosotros and vosotros forms keep the original stem ten-. Here is the full present-tense table:

Spot the pattern: tengo stands alone, tienes / tiene / tienen share the ie, and tenemos / tenéis stay regular. The verb venir (to come) follows exactly the same shape: vengo, vienes, viene, venimos.

Tener in the preterite and the imperfect

In the past, Spanish gives you two options with two different meanings. The preterite tuve is strongly irregular (new stem tuv-, no accent marks). The imperfect tenía is perfectly regular, with the -ía endings every -er verb uses.

When do you pick which? The short version: tuve reports something that happened (often "got" or "received"); tenía describes what you had as background. The full rules live in the Spanish preterite tense guide and the Spanish imperfect tense guide.

Where English says "to be"Tener expressions: hunger, cold, age and more

This is the section that makes you sound Spanish. Every one of these expressions uses tener plus a noun — and because the second word is a noun, you'll modify it with mucho / mucha, never with muy. English "I'm very hungry" becomes tengo mucha hambre, literally "I have a lot of hunger."

Eleven expressions, one rule: tener + noun. Say mucha hambre, mucho frío, mucha prisa — never muy hambre.

ObligationTener que + infinitive: how to say "have to"

Add one little word — que — and tener stops meaning "have" and starts meaning "have to." The structure is always tener (conjugated) + que + infinitive, and it's the everyday way to talk about obligations, from chores to deadlines:

• Tengo que estudiar esta noche. — I have to study tonight.
• ¿Tienes que trabajar el sábado? — Do you have to work on Saturday?
• Tenemos que salir a las ocho. — We have to leave at eight.
• Tuvieron que cancelar el vuelo. — They had to cancel the flight.

Two things to remember. First, que is not optional: tengo estudiar is not Spanish. Second, tener que is personal — someone specific has the obligation. For "one has to" in general, Spanish uses the impersonal hay que: Hay que practicar todos los días (You have to practice every day). The full range of obligation, from tener que to deber, is in the guide to must in Spanish.

In the wildTener in real Spanish: travel, work and family

Six sentences you'll genuinely use. Read each one aloud and notice which form of tener it takes and why.

From the classroomCommon mistakes English speakers make with tener

Four decades of corrected homework come down to these five — and every one comes from translating English word for word.

1. Using ser or estar for hunger, cold and age. Estoy hambre and soy treinta años are the classic beginner errors. Spanish carries these things: tengo hambre, tengo treinta años. If the English sentence is "I'm + hungry / cold / afraid / X years old," reach for tener.
2. Saying muy instead of mucho/mucha. Tengo muy frío sounds wrong to every native ear, because frío here is a noun. Correct: tengo mucho frío, tengo mucha hambre, tienen mucha prisa. Match mucho/mucha to the gender of the noun.
3. Dropping que in tener que. Tengo trabajar is missing its glue. It's always tengo que trabajar. English "have to" is two words; Spanish "tener que" is two words too.
4. Stem-changing the nosotros form. Students who learn tienes, tiene, tienen often overshoot and say tienemos. The nosotros form never changes its stem: tenemos. Same story for tenéis in Spain.
5. Using tener as the helping verb in "I have eaten." Tengo comido is not Spanish. Perfect tenses use haber: he comido. Tener is for possession; haber is the auxiliary — which brings us to the last section.

The lookalikeTener vs haber: two Spanish verbs for "to have"

English uses one verb, "have," for two completely different jobs: "I have a car" (possession) and "I have eaten" (helping verb). Spanish splits those jobs between two verbs, and mixing them up is one of the most visible mistakes an English speaker can make.

If "have" is followed by a noun, it's tener. If it's followed by a past participle (eaten, seen, done), it's haber. Full tables in the Spanish present perfect guide.

A quick test that never fails: if you can swap "have" for "own," it's tener — tengo tiempo, tengo miedo. If you can swap it for "did" ("I have eaten" → "I ate"), it's haber — he comido. And "there is / there are" is always hay, singular or plural: hay un problema, hay veinte problemas.

Tener sits alongside ser, estar and poder as one of the four verbs that carry everyday Spanish. Work through the ser conjugation guide and the ser vs estar guide, then keep building with the rest of my guides to Spanish verb conjugation.