Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

142 •  Chapter 2: Las personas y las perspectivas Learning objectives check, Lengua 2.5: Possessive adjectives ❏ I understand how and when to pluralize possessive adjectives. ❏ I understand when to use the feminine forms nuestra and nuestras . ❏ I know where to place possessive adjectives in relation to the noun they describe. ❏ I can almost always choose the correct possessive adjectives in my speech and writing. Lengua 2.6: Tener expressions The verb tener translates directly as “to have,” but it is also used in many common expressions for which English uses the verb to be . One example from chapter 1 is in expressing age. In English, “My sister is twenty-five years old.” In Spanish, “Mi hermana tiene veinticinco años.” These are additional common expressions with tener : Tener hambre To be hungry (To have hunger) Tener sed To be thirsty (To have thirst) Tener miedo To be afraid (To have fear) Tener prisa To be in a hurry (To have haste, hurriedness) Tener frío To be cold (To have coldness) Tener calor To be hot (To have heat) Tener razón To be right (To have reason, correctness) What the expressions above have in common is that in English, the structure includes the verb to be plus an adjective. Because of the English structure, students of Spanish might then try to change words like miedo and frío to make them match the gender and number of the person who is afraid or cold. However, in Spanish, people have fear and cold. These are not adjectives but rather nouns. As nouns, they already have their own gender. Frío and miedo are both masculine and singular, regardless of who has them. See these examples: Mis amigas tienen miedo. Por lo general no me gusta lo dulce, pero tomo chocolate caliente cuando tengo frío. Las niñas abren la puerta porque tienen muchísimo calor durante la clase. On a related note, we have been using muy to express the idea of “very”: La clase es muy interesante. Estamos muy cansados. Muy is the correct word to use with adjectives. When using the tener expressions, though, we are working with nouns, and so we need a different word. A person cannot have “ very fear.” Instead, we use mucho or mucha , depending on the gender of the noun. See these examples: