Tenemos…We’ve got…a lot of stuff!

Nowadays we’ve got so many things…so much stuff. There’s no doubt about it.

But you may have a doubt about how to say that in Spanish!

TENEMOS = WE’VE GOT (or WE HAVE)

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT AUDIO LINKS

Listen carefully to the audio links,  provided below, even if you think you don’t really need to. Trust me. You really do need to listen to the links and repeat each word or phrase as closely as you can. It will help you accustom your ear and your mind to hearing yourself speaking in Spanish.

For more about the advantages of close repetition click here: Repeat, repeat, repeat…

That’s all fine and well but let’s see how you can actually use this in your day-to-day.

Imagine you’re an astronaut (in your day-to-day?) on the way to…Mars? , (No, really, you may be) and you need to tell Houston control you and the other astronauts have a problem.

The English-speaking person who you usually communicate with is on lunch-time break and the substitute is Spanish. Out of courtesy, you might want to address her in Spanish and that would be really polite of you.  You could say:

     We’ve got a problem

Tenemos un problema

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Changing scenarios: you may have to ask your Spanish-speaking bank manager to lend you some money. He asks you what collateral you have. You may have to tell her that you and your partner have a house. That would be enough collateral, I bet, to clinch the deal!  She would be so impressed that you were asking her in Spanish that I’m sure she would give you all the credit you wanted. See how useful this could be?

We’ve got a house

 Tenemos una casa

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Imagine; It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re starting to feel a bit down as you have no great plans for this evening, but then your friend rings with great news and tells you to cheer up and that all is not lost. She tells you in Spanish that you have both been invited to a party later on that evening. Great!

      We’ve got a party!

    Tenemos una fiesta 

 

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Your landlady isn’t happy. She wants to put your rent up and she wants you and your family to move out as soon as possible. You really need more time to organise things and pack everything. You’re certainly going to have to find more boxes.

You never know, she might be Spanish, in which case you would certainly win her over if you addressed her in Spanish, explaining you had lots of things to pack up before you could move out! You could say:

We’ve got lots of things

   Tenemos muchas cosas. 

 

You never know. She might be so flattered that you tried to speak her language that she decides not to put the rent up after all. One never knows the benefits of being able to speak another language

That’s all very well, but what about a making a question?

Thank goodness that there’s nothing easier in Spanish than making a question. All we have to do is put an interrogative tone to out TENEMOS and there you have it. Remember to start (and end) the sentence with question marks to show that it’s a question.

¿TENEMOS?  = HAVE WE GOT? (or DO WE HAVE?)

• Have we got a problem?    ¿Tenemos un problem?

• Have we got a house?        ¿Tenemos  una casa?

• Have we got any milk?    ¿Tenemos leche?

• Have we got any time?     ¿Tenemos tiempo?

Isn’t it amazing how simple Spanish grammar can be? Even being negative in Spanish is ‘pan comido’ ( literally: eaten bread; meaning ‘very easy to do’, ‘done and dusted’.)

 

Now let’s get negative

NO TENEMOS = WE HAVEN’T GOT (WE DON’T HAVE)

• We haven’t got a problem      No tenemos problema

• We haven’t got any time         No tenemos tiempo

• We haven’t got any milk         No tenemos leche

• We haven’t got any beer          No tenemos cerveza 

 

TENEMOS is the third person singular of the verb TENER = TO HAVE

For previous posts on TENER click on the following:

• I’ve got a small house! 
• Have you got a….bicycle?
• How to spread gossip…in Spanish
• I’ve got, you’ve got, she’s got…

Let me know in the comments box below if you would like me to make a post about any specific aspect of Spanish you are interested in or need help with.

Share this with someone you think might be interested.

I really hope this helps…