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SPANISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tener.

to have; to possess

5 characters2 syllables approx.Español language

Meaning & usage

verb/teˈneɾ/[t̪eˈneɾ]
  1. to have; to possess

    literally · transitive
    Ella tiene seis hermanos.
    Tengo una pluma.
  2. to have; to possess; to be (a condition or quality)

    transitive
    Usted tiene suerte.
    ¡Ten cuidado!
  3. to hold; to grasp

    transitive
    Ten esto.
  4. to contain; to hold (e.g. to "hold the power to", "hold the key", "hold a clue", "hold the truth", "have a hold on", "hold in store", "hold all the cards", "hold in high regard", etc.)

    transitive
    Este tarro tiene las cenizas.
    El estadio es enorme. Puede tener una capacidad de hasta cien mil espectadores.
  5. to have; to feel (internally)

    transitive
    Él le tiene mucho cariño a ella.
    Tengo frío.
  6. to make to feel

    transitive
    Eso nos tiene tristes.
  7. to have (a measure or age)

    transitive
    Tiene tres metros de ancho.
    Tengo veinte años.
  8. to have to

    Tengo que salir ahora.
  9. to have to do not have to

  10. to have to must not

    En la escuela no tengo que hablar vasco.
  11. to get (e.g. to get a minute, to get an idea, to get a chance, to get a concussion/bruise/headache, to get in an accident, to get a place, to get a view of, to get a meeting, to get a vision, etc.)

    Ese cadete necesita tenerlo bajo control.
  12. to keep; to bear (in certain phrases; e.g. to bear in mind, bear a resemblance, keep a journal/diary, keep around something or someone)

    Ten en cuenta que es más difícil de volver a subir al cañón que descenderlo.
    Pronto voy a comprobar sus billetes, así que ténganlos a manos.
  13. to make (in a few select phrases)

    Ahora todo tiene sentido.
  14. to be taken (usually has deber for an auxiliary verb when used)

    reflexive
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Old Spanish tener (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre, teneō (“to hold; to keep; to have”), from Proto-Italic *tenēō, stative from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch or draw”). The preterite forms in tuv- are from contamination with those of the nearly synonymous haber, hub-.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.