Learn how to use the Spanish verb that means "to have" in the sense of possessing or owning something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: I'm Hungry for More Spanish! JP, how are you? |
| JP: [*] |
| Fernando: I’m doing so well, man, thanks! |
| JP: Okay. So, Fernando, why don’t you tell us what we’re gonna talk about? |
| Fernando: Sure thing. In this lesson, you will learn about the verb tener. This conversation takes place at the office and the conversation is between Luisa and Jaime. The speakers will be using the the familiar register. |
| JP: Should we listen to this dialogue? |
| Fernando: I think we should. |
| JP: [*] |
| DIALOGUES |
| Lesson Conversation + Translation |
| (1 time natural native speed, 1 time slowly, 1 time with translation) |
| (1 time natural native speed) |
| Luisa:¿Qué te pasa? |
| Jaime:Tengo hambre. |
| Luisa:Pues vamos a comer. |
| Jaime:¡Por fin! |
| English Host: Let’s hear it again with dramatic speed. |
| Luisa:¿Qué te pasa? |
| Jaime:Tengo hambre. |
| Luisa:Pues vamos a comer. |
| Jaime:¡Por fin! |
| English Host: One more time with the translation. |
| Luisa: ¿Qué te pasa? |
| JP: What's wrong with you? |
| Jaime: Tengo hambre. |
| JP: I'm hungry. |
| Luisa: Pues vamos a comer. |
| JP: Then let's go eat. |
| Jaime: ¡Por fin! |
| JP: Finally! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Okay, we’re back my friend. There’s a little bit of tension between Luisa and Jaime. |
| Fernando: If you don’t eat, you tend to get grumpy. |
| JP: Well, I do, definitely. |
| Fernando: Well, yeah. That’s why Luisa is, “What’s wrong with you?” ¿Qué te pasa? |
| JP: Okay. So something must be wrong with Jaime. He must be the grumpy one and he says Tengo hambre “I’m hungry.” |
| Fernando: Tengo hambre. I need to finish this so we can go have lunch. |
| JP: Well, Luisa has a solution for the problem. |
| Fernando: Pues vamos a comer. |
| JP: “So, let’s go eat.” |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: All right, let’s eat now, for goodness sakes. |
| Fernando: Finally, which actually makes me think that Luisa is the one who was taking a little longer. |
| JP: Oh! Yeah, because Jaime says finally. How did he say that? |
| Fernando: Finally! ¡Por fin! |
| JP: ¡Por fin! Okay, cool. Let's look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando:por fin [natural native speed] |
| JP:finally |
| Fernando:por fin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando:por fin [natural native speed] |
| Fernando:¿Qué te pasa? [natural native speed] |
| JP:What’s your problem? / What’s wrong with you? |
| Fernando:¿Qué te pasa? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando:¿Qué te pasa? [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: tener hambre [natural native speed] |
| JP: to be hungry |
| Fernando: tener hambre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: tener hambre [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: ir a + (infinitive) [natural native speed] |
| JP: to be going to (do something) |
| Fernando: ir a + (infinitive) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: ir a + (infinitive) [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: comer [natural native speed] |
| JP: to eat |
| Fernando: comer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: comer [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| JP: Okay, let's take a closer look at these words and phrases. |
| Fernando: Let’s start with ¿Qué te pasa? |
| JP: ¿Qué te pasa? So literally, this is “What is happening to you?” right? Pasar is the verb “to happen.” |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: But we’re including this as a phrase here because the question is actually more loaded than that. It’s like “What’s wrong with you?” |
| Fernando: Are you okay? |
| JP: Are you okay? Right. |
| Fernando: Exactly and that’s what you ask, ¿Qué te pasa? |
| JP: ¿Qué te pasa? |
| Fernando: “Are you okay?” |
| JP: Mm-hmm. Now, the implication is tha you probably believe that something is wrong. |
| Fernando: Right. ¿Qué te pasa? |
| JP: ¿Qué te pasa? What’s wrong with you? Are you all right? |
| Fernando: Next one - tener hambre. |
| JP: "To be hungry" tener hambre. Now, this is a superimportant phrase for everybody to know if they’re travelling to the Spanish-speaking world or just in a Spanish-speaking context because food is so important, right? |
| Fernando: It is. |
| JP: You can’t function without it. |
| Fernando: I am super hungry right now. [*] |
| JP: Okay. All right. Well, we have to finish the podcast first, Fernando. So tener hambre is literally “to have hunger” and it’s just an idiomatic phrase. When I say idiomatic, I mean it doesn’t translate literally. Literally, it’s “to have hunger” tener hambre, but that’s the normal way to talk about being hungry. |
| Fernando: So when you’re hungry that will lead us to the next word, comer. |
| JP: Comer. Fernando, comer is my favorite verb in Spanish. |
| Fernando: Nah-uh. |
| JP: Yes, it is. Comer means “to eat” and eating is one of my favorite things. |
| Fernando: No comment. |
| JP: All right. Another reason I like comer also is is because it’s a very regular verb. So whenever people ask me to give an example of a regular -er verb, I usually use comer ‘cause it makes me feel nice. |
| Fernando: You do use that one often. |
| JP: I do. |
| Fernando: Okay. |
| JP: Okay. |
| Fernando: ir a + infinitive. |
| JP: Okay. |
| Fernando: Yeah. Infinitive is not a Spanish word. |
| JP: No, it’s not. Infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb. So, we’re gonna use… |
| Fernando: ir a comer |
| JP: Ir a comer. So comer would be an infinitive. Ir a comer would be “to be going to eat,” right? |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: Because ir means “to go” and ir a is “to go to.” |
| Fernando: go to |
| JP: Right. So if you go to eat, it’s going to eat, you know, to be going to eat. |
| Fernando: vamos a comer |
| JP: Okay. Now, you can switch out the infinitive with any other infinitive in Spanish language. |
| Fernando: Yes, you can. Vamos a bailar. |
| JP: Okay, “Let’s dance.” |
| Fernando: Let’s dance. |
| JP: Okay. Or we’re going to dance. This ir a “to be going to” is a way of expressing a future action in Spanish, just like in English when we say going to or gonna, ir a. Now, that ir is kind of an irregular verb, but I think you already know it. It’s [*]. |
| Fernando: ¡Por fin! |
| JP: ¡Por fin! Okay, ¡Por fin! is the last item on this list. |
| Fernando: Yeah. That too, that too. |
| JP: ¡Por fin! means “Finally!” It’s what you exclaim when you finally get what you want after waiting for a long time. |
| Fernando: In this case, Luisa is like ¡Por fin! Finally, we are going to go eat! |
| JP: Finally! ¡Por fin! |
| Fernando: [*] |
| JP: Okay. |
| Fernando: There you go. |
| JP: Thank goodness. So, shall we move to the grammar point? |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| JP: Okay, this dialogue was, I think, was deceptively simple because we have a lot to choose from to talk about. We could have talked about ir a, we could have talked about comer, we could have talked about ¿Qué te pasa? But I wanna talk about tener hambre, specifically, other idioms with the verb tener. |
| Fernando: Why am I not surprised you chose tener hambre? |
| JP: Okay, you got me. Anyway, yeah, because I’m obsessed with food, that’s why. I admit it. |
| Fernando: Okay. |
| JP: So, tener means “to have.” Tener hambre means “to have hunger” and that’s the normal way to talk about being hungry in Spanish, right? |
| Fernando: Yes, yes. |
| JP: There are other idiomatic phrases in Spanish that use the verb tener and I wanna talk about some of them. But before we do, let’s talk about the regular usage of the verb tener, because there are some tricky parts to that too. Now, we said tener means “to have,” right? |
| Fernando: Yes, we did. |
| JP: To have, to own, to possess. |
| Fernando: Mm-hmm. |
| JP: Right. Now, that’s a pretty simple concept, but we have to realize that in English, we use the word “to have” in many ways that have nothing to do with to own or to possess. |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: Right? For example, “I have finished my food.” There’s no owning or possessing in “I have finished my food.” |
| Fernando: There you go again, the food. |
| JP: Right. That “have” there is just an auxiliary, just a helping verb. One of my students said this once, “I have pancakes for breakfast every weekend.” |
| Fernando: That’s a good one. |
| JP: It’s a good one because there’s nothing owning or possessing about that “have,” right? Having pancakes? |
| Fernando: I wanna be that kid. |
| JP: You wanna be that kid? I made fun of him for that because he tried to say- in Spanish, he tried to say [*]. It’s like are you holding, are you owning pancakes every weekend? |
| Fernando: Mm-hmm. |
| JP: Right. When you say I have pancakes for breakfast every weekend, what you’re saying is I eat pancakes, right? |
| Fernando: Exactly. |
| JP: So the point is, English has many other sentences of the verb “to have.” Whereas in Spanish, tener only means “to have, to possess, to own,” except when we have these idiomatic phrases. For example, “to be hungry.” |
| Fernando: tener hambre |
| JP: “to be thirsty” |
| Fernando: tener [*] |
| JP: “to be sleepy” |
| Fernando: tener [*] |
| JP: “to be correct, to be right” |
| Fernando: tener [*] |
| JP: There’s a whole list of this. Let’s just do a couple more and then refer people back to the website. “To be cold” |
| Fernando: tener [*] |
| JP: Tener [*] is literally “to have” and then “coldness.” That’s the normal way you talk about feeling cold, right? |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: How about to feel hot? |
| Fernando: tener [*] |
| JP: Tener [*], literally “to have heat.” |
| Fernando: Not a recurring feeling in New York right now. |
| JP: No, it’s not. |
Outro |
|---|
| JP: So, Fernando, I think that’s it for today. |
| Fernando: I think so. |
| JP: ¡Por fin! |
| Fernando: Exactly. ¡Adiós! |
| JP: ¡Hasta luego! |
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