Idioms with Tener

Idioms with ‘tener’

[A] Complete this conjugation table for ‘tener’ (= to have). The shaded boxes should not be filled in:

INFINITIVE: tener GERUND: teniendo PAST PARTICIPLE: tenido

PRESENT FUTURE CONDITIONAL PRETERITE IMPERFECT I YOU HE/SHE WE YOU THEY

[B] What do these idioms mean?

1. tener calor 13. tener prisa 2. tener cariño 14. tener que 3. tener celos 15. tener razón 4. tener cuidado 16. tener sed 5. tener la culpa 17. tener sueño 6. tener derecho 18. tener suerte 7. tener éxito 19. tener vergüenza 8. tener frío 20. tener … de largo 9. tener ganas de 21. no tener nada que ver con 10. tener hambre 22. tener lugar 11. tener ilusión 23. tener en cuenta 12. tener miedo a / de 24. estar que no tenerse

[C] ‘Tener’ is a verb that is very flexible in Spanish. Many prefixes can be added to it to create new verbs. Can you create new verbs by selecting from the prefixes below and attaching them to ‘tener’? What do the new verbs mean?

Abs- / Con- / De- / Entre- / Man- / Ob- / Re- / Sos-

………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………

[D] Read the following paragraph and then attempt the subsequent exercises:

Why is ‘tener’ used in Spanish whereas ‘be’ is used in English? The answer partly lies in its etymology. English, along with other Germanic languages (e.g. German, Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish) developed the concept of ‘be’ + adjective, whereas the Romance languages (e.g. Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Spanish) developed out of the Latin ‘tenere’ +noun. In Latin ‘tenere’ comes from the root ten- or tan- which was related to Greek and Sanskrit. The Sanskrit word ‘tanomi’ means ‘to stretch’ or ‘to spread’ (think of the Spanish noun ‘el tenedor’ = ‘fork’, i.e. something that pulls meat apart by stretching / dragging; or ‘la tienda’ = ‘tent’, i.e. a covering that stretches across a frame to provide shelter). In Latin the meaning expanded further to include the concepts of ‘holding onto’ and ‘belonging to’. Although English commonly uses Germanic roots (e.g. ‘have’ and ‘be’), English has many cognates based on ‘tenere’ (e.g. content / tenant / tension).

(a) Draw a flow chart to show the development of ‘tenere’ from Sanskrit to its borrowed use in English.

(b) Apart from the examples given in the passage what other words in Spanish do you know owe part of their meaning to ‘tener’.

(c) What English cognates based on ‘tenere’ can you think of apart from the three examples given in the passage above?